who would really much rather eat all day

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For the past 2 years, I have managed to evade the Plague of sicknesses. It could also be because whenever sick people are at work I Clorox every single thing I’m going to touch. Well, I didn’t this time. I blame my coworker who came in on Thursday when he was sick. So now I have it. Yippee.

This is so awesome of course – said no one ever. Now I really can’t sleep, breathe or move my head. I should probably be staying home from work, but what can you do. I just need to rest as much as I can and take a crap ton of Nyquil and other meds. At least being sick helped me finish my middle painting. It’s actually going to go in my parent’s guest room, so that’s pretty cool.

BeforeAfter

Amber is bored, but okay. She’s been ouchie on her right hind and resting it more than usual, so of course I’m worried about her again. At least it’s only 2 more weeks until her check up so we can see how her sole is developing. Crossing my fingers!

Also, here’s a funny video of what Whisper does when she’s really hungry and I haven’t fed dinner yet. She looks a bit rabid LOL.

Bad news: I somehow managed to minorly sprain my left ankle while in two point.

Yeah I don’t know how. One second I was in two point and went to canter a circle, and the next it felt like my ankle rolled in the stirrup. It was pretty weird. It was sore for the rest of the day, along with some blisters on my heels so that was a very interesting day lol. Thankfully, it’s feeling okay now after a lot of icing. So not a bad sprain just super weird. Anyone else have this happen to them?

Such a lovely place – one I didn’t even know existed out here. To the left of this photo were 2 super cute (what looked like) weanlings! They were all lovely horses!

Trainer G moved to a new place, a lovely barn that is full of gorgeous Morgan horses. Among those lovely Morgans is the only QH – Rocky, the horse that I rode. He’s shorter than Amber, and narrower (then again most horses are narrower LOL) but he still had quite a bit of get up and go. He used to be a reiner too, which I found nicely familiar. He’d slow down if I sat too far back or too far forward, and had very abrupt downward transitions. Just like Amber and all other reiners I’ve ridden lol.

Rocky! Another chestnut QH but that face ❤

It actually worked out really well that I haven’t ridden in a while because Trainer G has been starting to teach Rocky how to jump. We worked a lot on flatwork, and oh man my legs were dying from being so out of shape haha. Rocky doesn’t need spurs because he does have a good amount of go, but he still needs quite a bit more leg than I’m used to. I managed to feel it just once, but I still haven’t figured out how exactly to get the amount of leg and in what position it needs to be for the horses that Trainer G has ridden. Rocky isn’t spooky, he’s just very looky and gets distracted easily. He’s a bit older and creaky, but a good boy and he does like to jump. Once I got more comfortable I was able to get his attention a little better. We worked on 20 meter circles and controlling the shoulder while still getting him to bend around my inside legs. It was tough and not very successful with me being out of shape, but thankfully Trainer G was super encouraging and I was able to get our circles at least moderately even haha.

This was the tack room. And the “barn doors” are the doors to each person’s locker. Ummmmmm……wooooow (it’s also soooooooo neat)

We started off with some poles and small crossrails, and only jumped a little bit. We’d only managed to go over the crossrail twice before my ill-timed sprain, and only got one more shot at it. It was actually the only time I managed to get my Cambox recording correctly unfortunately, so I only have one good video. Still, Rocky was fun to jump. He’s still figuring it out for sure, but while he’s unsure, he’s certainly a different ride than Liam.

So, it wasn’t a groundbreaking lesson, although everything along with my 4th and pinky fingers is sore! I’m certainly planning to try fitting in working out more with my schedule, but it’ll take some time. Either way, I’m hoping I can schedule another lesson soon!

Even though Olivia probably never meant for this to be a blog hop, this is too good not to. I’m also going to go with the premise that even though it says “millionaire” that I have an unlimited amount of funds. Because this is fantasy land so why not?!

First, I’d buy a wonderful horse property. I haven’t looked overmuch for a horse property so unfortunately I have no dream farm link, but I know it would be much closer to the east coast. A bit inland, but NC or SC since it’s further south and I happen to have a lot of family in that area so that’d be cool. I’d want it to be a bit out in the country, already have barns, arenas, a bit of cross country courses built and over 100 acres with a few fenced pastures. Perfect for eventing.

Like this, but with more land and an xc schooling area and an sj arena lol

Amber’s life wouldn’t change too much but with this, I would get Amber a buddy – an aged gelding in need of a good retirement home. Amber gets along well with older geldings, so she could live out in a pasture with him and they’d have a blast out there. With a grazing muzzle and only Bermuda grass because girl is special haha. There would also be a few other pastures to rotate other horses.

Somewhere where Amber can do this again ❤

I’d grab myself a Prelim packer to begin showing me the ropes of eventing. I may go for a 1* or 2* packer, but hey, if money is no option then I can always get one later, right?! haha I’d also like to buy around 4-5 ammy friendly 1*, 2* or below horses to keep as “extras”. Why? Well, because what I would ultimately LOVE is to have adult summer camps from spring to fall. Yup! For 1-2 weeks Adult Ammies would bring their horses (if they had one) to my place for an adult summer camp. If they didn’t have horses, that’s where my 4-5 packers would come in handy. It’d be a week or two of wine and other drinks, camping, and hanging out for fun days with horses. However, since money isn’t an issue here, there’d also be clinics during that time – dressage, SJ and XC specific clinics with 4* riders as well as pure SJ and Dressage trainers. It’d be lots of things packed into only a few days, but I personally think would be awesome.

Just imagine these people as adults with drinks in their hands lol

I’d make sure it was AA friendly in terms of price too, so that probably would make me absolutely no money and really drain me dry, but we’re talking a zillion dollars in fantasy land so I can dream haha. In the off time of summer camps I’d probably let a few trainers/people winter down there. The packers would probably have leases or something, who knows haha. But of course I’d have custom tack for all of my animals, and perhaps some fanceh stuff for me. Probably just custom boots really since I’m pretty okay with everything else. Okay maybe some custom pants since most pants don’t fit me. Okay, fine. I’ll have fanceh schmancy stuff too! lol

I would of course go to as many shows as I could, even though I get a little burned out with a lot of showing, but then I’d try to volunteer as much as I could as well since I’ll have a zillion dollars and won’t need to work. That’s about it for me because after that I’d be waaaaay past a zillion dollars in just a year LOL.

Amber seems to be doing okay. I think she’s finally settling a bit. It could be a number of things, but she’s seemed more content these days than before. Perhaps she’s realizing that it’s “the life” to just eat all day and get loved on and get tons of scratches? Probably lol. Her big nickers for scratches have increased in volume and intensity lol, and she’s gotten very smart about it. She gives me 2-3 minutes to finish scooping poop before she leaves her alfalfa to beg for scratches. Silly girl haha. We’ve gotten into a bit of a routine now, though it’s a small routine and we’ve changed a few things for her.

First off, I’ve switched her from bute to Equioxx. I think she’s doing better on that – she just looks a little happier in general, so I’m going to say that it’s helping her feel better and isn’t as harsh on her stomach even though I’m totally not 100% sure lol. The sore on her left side has been slowly but steadily healing, so that tells me that she isn’t laying down as much and the soft rides are really helping her be more comfortable standing.

Diet. Ahh, poor girl lolol. She is NOT a fan of her new diet and the fact that her human bought a fish scale to precisely measure her hay has her pretty upset. Okay, so some days she get a half pound extra haha. But most days her diet is strict. It’s almost easy actually, because she’s a lot more comfortable if I put her hay in a net so it makes for a perfect opportunity to weigh it. She’s on 18 lbs now to start so she can get used to it before I take her down to the vet’s desired amount of 16lbs. She does not like this haha. She gets quite hangry and I don’t blame her. I usually try to at least eat less and get fitter and then what happens? It’s international doughnut day, or my friend buys pizza and wine and coconut dream cookies for an impromptu tv show binge night, or I get offered tacos and say yes because of course I want tacos. So, I feel Amber for wanting more food and not being able to eat any lol.

I have trimmed her mane shorter, and leave her tail out of its bag. I brush both every other day, and she loves the attention. I took about 2 inches off of her mane to not only even it up but she gets so hot in this weather that I’m still debating whether or not to really trim it short. I can’t bring myself to do that yet, since I just love her longer mane, so that gets brushed whenever her tail does. They get washed every week, and she’s been less itchy with that. And every weekend, she gets a break from her annoying socks and boots. She’s gotten pretty good at leaving that left hind foot where I place it so the towel can help it dry before it goes back into the boot. She tries to tell me otherwise but I think she secretly LOVES it when I bathe her and pamper her haha. And she deserves it too!

This is usually her face when it’s bath time lol. Sorry for the old media. I really don’t have anything new lol

Once I’ve used them up I’m going to take her off of her supplements. She really doesn’t need them anymore, but she still gets ulcerguard pellets – the only thing I’ll probably keep her on. She’ll probably still get a few of her other things – flax and salt, but the other stuff is just money that I don’t need to spend anymore. I’ve been thinking of switching grain too, just to something perhaps more formulated to a laminitic horse. She really doesn’t need the ultium competition grain anymore even though both she and I love it haha.

Otherwise, it’s been quiet around here. We’re just plodding along day by day, waiting for Amber’s next appointment at the end of September. Since Amber will be due for a trim at the time of the appointment, I’ve got the vet and farrier scheduled so that they can chat about where to go from there and have a plan for her feet. Good to knock out 2 birds with one stone.

I’m super excited for my lesson Saturday; I’m just really hoping I’m not absolutely horrid since I honestly haven’t ridden in like…4-5 weeks or longer and am so out of shape lol. It feels shorter since time has really flown by recently, but I’m hoping I’ll have a little more opportunity to lesson in the following months. Also, I’m super excited because I FINALLY get to try my Cambox helmet camera for a lesson! Let’s just hope it doesn’t record me falling off haha!

I’m certainly one of those people that if presented with a problem that requires waiting (not patience because I have none lol), I have to have a gazillion different plans of action should the problem begin to resolve itself in a certain way. Then, I proceed to go back and forth between all gazillion options, and I change my mind every day – sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. I know it’s hard for the people around me to keep up with me sometimes when I do things like that – hell it’s hard for me to keep up with me haha. For Amber, should her stifle have gone wrong, I came up with so many things I could do should it not work out. As it turns out, her stifle ended up not being the problem. Looking at things a little more closely, it looks like her stifle healed phenomenally – it’s just the laminitis that got to her. So now, I’m back to all of my previous options and oscillating back and forth. This is mostly just for me since it’s a good way to sort through my thoughts and actually get them down on paper. Or virtual paper as it will. It will also keep me a little steadier in the months to come I think – even if I want to change my mind it’ll help me stay settled on my ultimate decision.

First off, I’ll take you through the (most plausible) options I had settled on:

I could breed Amber. This of course, is a definite “no” now. There’s much to think about with this one, not only because Amber is laminitic – although now of course that’s a huge part of it. Because I’m breeding this horse, I also completely understand that I may not be able to keep it forever and always because sometimes life happens. So I have to make sure the horse is also marketable should I have to sell it. Vet bills for pregnancies are no joke either, plus knowing Amber and her injury-prone self, she’ll find some way to cause me grief her whole pregnancy. Pretty sure I can’t handle 11 months of that LOL. Knowing her she’ll also pass on her injury-prone-ness to her foal LOL. There’s also just a LOT of potential for things to go wrong just in pregnancy and birth. Plus, I’m not delusional enough to think I’ll “get another Amber” should I breed her. There of course will never be another Amber, and truthfully, I don’t want another one. She is one of a kind. It may be vain, but I do also worry about people talking about the foal as being “backyard bred” even if I did breed Amber to a nice TB since appendix QHs are marketable. As for care, there are really no good areas for me to put Amber, and should she even be able to have a foal, I would want her in a big pasture with other foaling mares so the foal can grow up and be social. I think that’s an integral part of a foal’s growth and I want to give it as best a start in life as I can. A foal is a lot of responsibility, one I don’t take lightly, so there’s much about this option that isn’t feasible for me at the present. But, the laminitis really shuts this decision down, though to be honest I really don’t think I would have ever gone this route no matter what happened.

She is certainly a beautiful mare, but do I REALLY need to breed her? No, no I do not. Plus, no guarantees the foal will actually WANT to jump or put up with the shenanigans I’ll put it through as well as…..having slightly longer legs and a slightly more uphill build and a bit less body bulk…… so uh….. there’s also that lol

So. What next? Well, I could lease a horse. This one is still in the air. It’s certainly an option and I’m still tossing it around in my head. I’m still a bit hesitant on this one tho, mostly because I won’t own the horse. Based on my past experiences this hasn’t always been the best thing, but there are just as many (and many more!) good leases too, so it all depends on what I find or happens down the road. Of course knowing my luck I’ll end up with a lease and the lease horse will teach me a whole bunch and we’ll be absolutely great together lol. At the moment though, I’m just probably still hesitant to go this route because I’m sad that Amber and I can no longer go on adventures, and I’m mourning the loss of our riding connection. It’s really hard to be open to something else – especially when it’s not mine – when Amber and I have such a good relationship. This for sure isn’t an option I’m discarding for those reasons, but because I need to sort a lot out with Amber, but I just don’t know if it is completely feasible for me to lease at the moment.

Which leads to I could buy a horse. This is the one that’s the 2nd most solid of my options. I know eventually, even if I lease, I will want another horse. I actually preferably would like to find one before I have to let Amber go. Whisper really helped my mom with her grief when she had to put down her previous horse, and I’m thinking I’ll be the same way. Plus needing to care for the horse will get me out to the barn even if I don’t want to, because time spent with horses is the best time. I won’t lie but I am really dreading the whole “let’s find a horse” process since my mom did most of the looking before we bought Whisper and Amber just kinda fell into my lap haha. So I’m….very very green at this lol. I’m not in a rush to buy a horse though because it’s also not quite feasible for me to purchase a horse right now. It’s even harder because there really aren’t any eventing prospect horses around the Vegas area. I considered buying another horse from the same program Amber came from (you know, school support and all that plus I know what care/training they get and know the types of horses), but I’ve since realized that if I’m buying a horse that I want to event on, I have to be able to ride them to try them (you can’t at LOR). I also have to know they like jumping and they enjoyed even the smallest of cross country schools. It’d be a project horse, not requiring a lot of jumping experience since I’m confident in myself and especially the pros around me to help me muddle through haha. Plus, after all the hard work I’ve done with Amber and bringing her up myself, I know that teaching a horse myself really helps to build a connection and relationship with the animal, and I really want another partnership.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have another partnership like the one I have with this silly goose, but I certainly want another partnership that has respect and trust and affection for each other like this one.

My last option, which is the option I have decided right now to do, is to catch ride and lesson on as many different horses as I can. With Amber, I knew her inside and out, and I didn’t have any fears jumping her or taking her cross country or doing whatever it was with her. But now that a new horse is in my future, I need to start developing a feel for what type of ride I’d like. I’ve been excited about jumping and I’ve been excited about dressage – now I need to see if I can get out there on cross country and see if I’m excited about that (I really don’t doubt I will be, but I’m nothing if not a pretty practical person haha). I need to see if I really, truly want to event. Amber was easy – we’d done so many things in the past that if we evented for a bit and it wasn’t hers or my thing, then we’d pop over to something else. But I may be looking for a horse specifically for eventing, so I have to make sure that this is a discipline I really want to do. Again, pretty sure I do, because even though I have yet to do some of the things, I am still as hungrily following it now as I was when I first discovered it in 2016. But who the hell knows I may be frozen come cross country haha! But by riding so many different horses, I can hopefully start feeling what kind of ride I’d like and what type of horse and how their gaits feel. I cannot ride bouncy horses AT ALL, so I’d like to know the bounce limit I can ride. Jumping and cross country is the best and, well, most important part about eventing, so I need to make sure what personality and traits and aspects about a horse I like that I’d be confident to go cross country.

Mr. Liam. He certainly was a saint and put up with me haha

Lesson pony Liam actually helped me with this. Since I was a very timid rider growing up, I always thought I wanted a “push” horse instead of a “whoa” horse, but he made me really miss Amber when I’d ride him. He only stopped on me once, and even then he still crawled over the fence, but he never quite gave me the feeling of taking me to the jumps. Despite Amber’s and my greenness and the fact that I didn’t start her right, she felt like she was taking me to the crossrails. Perhaps it wasn’t exactly how it’s supposed to feel, but it was enough of a difference that I noticed. Because when I’d tell her to go, she’d always ask me “how fast?” and stay there until I told her otherwise. Liam would go for a few strides, then slow back down. I’ve just started to realize that riding reiners has made me much less of a “push” horse person, and more of “whoa” person. So now to figure out how much go for the horse haha. While they’ve all been QHs, I’ve worked with a fair number of “go” horses (every single Gunnatrashya offspring has their bolting phase), but all of these traits may mean I end up with a TB. Which, TBs are WAY different from QHs, sooooo it’s a toss-up haha. But I don’t know! It’s a lot of information, but I’m happy with trying to figure out all the angles. It also helps that many horse sale ads I’ve found have been in WA, and I have a great eventer friend who knows TBs (and just horses in general) inside and out and is willing to help me out should I head on up there to look. So I want to lesson on TBs and more athletic QHs (meaning less fat LOL) and maybe even a warmblood because why the hell not?! Let’s do it! I do admit that I sorta miss having 6-8 horses to ride a day. They were all so different in their own right, but all such nice horses and I learned SO MUCH from all of them. That is one of the reasons I do want to catch ride. I learn best when challenged with a few things at once, and riding different horses I feel will really help me out. Who knows? I may even be lessoning for a year or two before I find my next partner, and I feel right now that I’m not in a rush for that like I usually would be (this may change tomorrow. I may want to just get it over with NOW haha!)

Between these ears is still the best view ❤

Coincidentally, I was able to (finally!!) schedule another lesson with Trainer G. I feel bad – I went dark for so long she lost my number LOL! She’s coincidentally at a new place with a new lesson horse – QH Rocky – and I know nothing about him but I’m excited for another lesson. She’s still close to an old cross country field I believe, so I’m going to try getting in my very first cross country outing with her with Rocky here in the future. There’s also a dressage trainer I really like who I will hopefully start lessoning with soon (just gotta make sure timing and everything works out) and there’s an h/j barn really close to me – like 15 minutes away. They have some lesson horses too, and since I am hoping to ride a variety of horses, I’ve been looking into lessoning with them as well. Plus, this will give me more jumping/dressage experience that I can carry forward to my next ride – be it a lease horse or I buy one.

As sad as I am that the chapter of Amber and I riding and competing together has ended, I’m pretty excited for this next chapter. Even though I can’t ride her anymore, I am so relieved that I FINALLY know what’s wrong with Amber and why she’s been upset. I can now move forward with a treatment plan for her to keep her comfortable, and start forming a plan for me to move forward as well. I feel as if I’ve been a bit stuck in a stasis, as I was from fall of 2015 to 2016, and the waiting has certainly taken it’s toll on me. But I am excited to get back into it.

Not that the vet visit was bad mind you. Just that we’re seeing the vet A LOT lol.

#accurate

Doc was headed out to take a look at Whisper, and did a 2 week check up on Amber as well. I had grabbed a few things for Amber before the visit – mostly a weight measure and some Equioxx. With her being laminitic, she can’t have too much alfalfa, but I don’t know exactly how much food a day we give her, and I wanted to weigh it, tell the doc, and form a plan. So, we’re good on the amount of alfalfa she’s getting ( ~3.5 lbs 2x a day), but overall she was getting too much especially with her being out of work. So, our aim is to cut back to 16 lbs ideally, so I’ll be cutting her back slowly. Now that her metabolism has slowed and she’s finally lost all the muscle she tenaciously hung on to, she’s not voraciously eating everything in sight. She’s leaving some, which is a good sign to us. So, I’ll be cutting down her food, but everything else I’m feeding her is okay.

Even though she’s in soft rides, I’m liking how the barefoot is helping her hind feet. Her sole is getting harder, and the spot is less spongy, which I take as a good thing. He wants to see her in 8 weeks tho – I’m thinking to see if her sole has thickened a bit more or how it’s growing in those 8 weeks. I questioned him about her being barefoot in the front, but he didn’t seem to think that was a good idea. Which I’m completely fine with, I was just putting it out there for curiosity’s sake. I’m just asking tons of questions since this is all new to me, but my vet has been taking this all in stride and has been more than willing to tell me the whys and his reasons for suggesting/doing certain things. So she stays in front shoes and we have some more waiting before figuring out her hind feet. The good news is that there’s no more bad news right now, soooooo….??? Ha I’ll take it.

Unfortunately our little ride we did was a big no-no. Poor Amber can’t get out of her stall at all (I mean, aside from going to the crossties for baths or grooming) in the next 8 weeks. Poor thing is going to go crazy. I could feel how happy she was even for the 5 minutes we walked. Her ears were pricked, and she was back to her “let’s go do stuff ma!” attitude. She keeps nosing her gate, wanting to be out and pestering me when I don’t get her out. She doesn’t understand why we can’t go out, especially since she’s now feeling better with the soft rides. That’s certainly been difficult.

It does feel a bit like “injury central” here tho haha. Whisper is doing very well since her hock injections but now has soreness in her LF so we have a couple things going on that’ll help weed out whether it’s not enough support for shoeing or something else in her leg. We’re hoping that she’ll be back in contention to start the next 3-show series come September, but it’s getting a bit close. So if she can’t show then we’ll probably still trailer her there just to get her off property, see the sights and promptly go home. Choco too has been pretty limpy lately. Her left shoulder is bothering her (what is it with our animals and their left sides at the moment? lol), so we have her on some anti-inflammatories which have seemed to help a lot. We’re also looking into canine adequan. Our biggest worry is that she’s still so full of life even at 14 that if we don’t help her feel better as best we can she may not really recover from it. We’d like to keep her as happy and active as we possibly can for as long as we can. Since Amber AND Whisper have been a bit out of commission, I really haven’t ridden at all (and yes I’m dying haha). But I’ve supplemented that with finally starting PT, this time with a doctor and physical therapist that actually care about my health concerns and are really trying to help me with preventative measures instead of “come back when you’re more broken and can’t walk”. Thanks. Real helpful guys. Right now I’m working on my right leg where I got kicked, and it’s pretty hard, but I’m keeping up with it. It needs to get stronger and function as best as it can, and I want to break up that scar tissue. Hopefully soon, I’ll get back to lessons. I also just….really need to work out since I have no fitness left at all since I haven’t ridden in a while lol. I have been pretty much a lump, so there’s that haha.

Yup – time to get this injury fixed!

I do want to start up lessons again soon, dressage and jumping if it all works out, so hopefully I can get my butt in gear and work out some more!

I didn’t realize my mom had actually gotten pictures of the x-rays, so I am able to share them with you guys. Just so everyone can see, last week I posted this video of her on Insta, which was taken on July 25, only 1 week prior to her vet visit.

You can certainly see some shortness in her RH, but there’s practically nothing to see in her LH, which is why we were all pretty shocked to see that this was what her foot actually looked like.

Pretty sure that line at the bottom says 0.4 cm between her coffin bone and foot.

That is…..not minor. I am pretty sure most horses would be 3-legged at this point. Thankfully, her right hind foot (and front feet) all looked good.

At least this one looks okay. I’m hoping the soft rides help with this as she now puts more weight on this right hind.

Bute hasn’t seemed to help as much anymore, and I worry about her since she’s been on it for a while. She’s on an ulcerguard at the same time, but bute long term isn’t the best which is why I want to switch her to Equioxx. She hasn’t been pigging out as much as she usually has either, so my mom and I were worried for a bit. It seems like all the food on the ground was just pretty painful for her, even with the boots and how much she loves to eat. Putting her hay in a net and getting it up off the floor has helped – she’s back to eating her usual amount.

She is certainly not the biggest fan of her boots lol. Every now and then she kind of kicks out hoping to get them off but they’re staying on. I was able to grab some old socks to prevent rubbing, but the boots have certainly helped her feel better. The few times she got excited about something over the weekend and trotted I could see a sliver of how well her stifle has actually been healing. She DID love her shavings and laid down immediately. Then proceeded to try to scratch the boot off.

So I figured I’d help her out. And she loved it. Such an itchy girl haha.

It has been a whirlwind week. Over the last week or two, Whisper has been odd. I was REALLY having to remind her to get back on her hindquarters, she was a lot more unwilling to work, and she’d start biting at the air whenever my mom would saddle her or I would put my spurs on her – even if they were the small little English nubby spurs I use on Amber. This was absolutely not like her. At first I thought perhaps she’d lost fitness or was giving us a few of her very rare “no” moments. But after a bit of a tough ride, and still a not-too-productive next ride, she still wasn’t better after a week and I rode her again. That ride, to the right she felt a bit wiggly, and it felt harder than usual. To the left though, if felt as if she’d lost all of her rhythm and cadence and that’s her good side. That piqued my interest, and I started a deep tissue massage on her a few nights later after I’d gotten to thinking. I really worked over her SI and Psoas around 3 nights in a row, and she was certainly improved by the weekend. No biting the air when I’d use spurs or when she’d be saddled. She still was just NQR though, so my mom made a Monday appointment for the vet to look at her. Since the vet was coming out, we figured he could check Amber over as well since it was time for her 1 month post-first-vet-visit visit.

He did a flex test on Whisper, and noted that she flexed a bit positively on her hocks. While her SI could certainly be the culprit, Whisper IS 16. We don’t believe she had any injections when she was younger before we got her when she was 4, and she’s been in consistent 4-6 day works (although those may not have been extremely HARD rides haha) for a good 12 years. Over the past 2-3 years, we’ve really worked on rocking her back and utilizing her hind end. This year alone we’ve upped her fitness since the Feb show, and have had increasingly intense – though short – rides so we can prepare for the Sept-Nov show series. I’m honestly not too surprised that it was probably time for a hock injection. Since she’s a sensitive horse, I think the injections will last her a long while – hopefully longer than a year, but I’m not too worried. Compared to Amber at the moment, Whisper is EASY-PEASY.

Cutie patootie

After Whisper’s flex test I grabbed Amber for him, and his immediate answer was “I still really don’t like this.” Well, damn. I thought she’d been doing pretty well actually. Over the month I’d actually taken down her walk time to 15 minutes, but increased to a bit of trotting for 10 seconds 2-3 times in one ride. The second walk of the day would be outside on pavement for 20 minutes. She did pretty well with this – ahhh or so I thought. So far, it seems the stifle is actually fine and all well and good pretty much, but he’s puzzled about why she doesn’t want to bring that RH forward. She walks really well on the street and stumbles a lot more in the arena with that RH. So we decided to inject her stifle with a steroid to help in case there was some build up of arthritis or tenacious inflammation that’s hindering her from wanting to bring that leg forward.

His words were “You’re (Amber) going to drag this out all the way to the end, aren’t you?” and “You’re lucky your mom loves you so much.” Truer words have never been spoken. If that doesn’t describe the both of us to a T I don’t know what does haha.

After walking her Tuesday she looked more comfortable. The steroid helped with the inflammation I think, and she was actually quite willing to bring the leg forward and only had a few bobbles in the arena. I was ready to just go ahead and start the IRAP process if that’d help her feel a lot better. However, the farrier came out Wednesday, and after he pulled her shoes told me to come look at her LH asap.

Amber has a new diagnosis – she has laminitis in her left hind foot. And pretty progressive laminitis at that.

You can see the yellow-ish spot just beneath the point of the frog – that was pretty mushy. Not to mention that red bruise is not good, and her white line doesn’t look too good either.

Looking at that foot on Wednesday, and after hearing the farrier say that it looked a lot like a laminitic foot, I knew they were right. I knew it wasn’t anything good. So I scrambled my schedule around and got her in to the clinic on Thursday. I wish I had the x-rays to show you guys (they will hopefully be emailed to me and I’ll post them) but I don’t think she really has more than 5 or so millimeters of sole between the coffin bone and outer sole. At first, after just watching her walk the vet wasn’t convinced. He seemed quite surprised and shocked after seeing the x-rays. (After finding that, all 4 feet were radiographed to make sure they were okay and to get a baseline) I don’t blame him. We both discussed how she doesn’t walk AT ALL like a laminitic horse and unfortunately, her symptoms were believed to be and clouded by the recent surgery to the RH stifle. Because honestly out of most of the symptoms, she really only noticeably did the “reluctant to walk forward” one, and we both just figured it was due to the stifle.

This would also make sense as to why she’s still getting this sore on her left hip and has holes in her hock boots a lot faster now, too.

But she wasn’t bringing the RH forward because that would cause her to put weight on her LH toe, and that hurt. For it to be so progressed though means that it’s been building for a while – not just post-surgery. I’m thinking it’s back to when she really injured it – during the show in November. Over the past 8-9 months she’s just been consistently weight bearing on that LH. Either way, as all of you know, this isn’t a good development at all.

So Amber has been taken off of everything – no stretches, no walks, no riding. Just stall rest. She is now wearing some soft ride boots, and by evening, it actually looked like she felt better. She was walking quite a lot more than she has for a while, so I think she’s more comfortable. I sure hope so. I suppose it’s pretty obvious to say that Amber is officially retired. Nothing more for her. The only silver lining I can find at the moment is that it’s a hind foot and not a front foot. Ironically, both the vet and I mentioned how it looks a bit like Barbaro. I only hope it doesn’t develop in any other foot and that we caught it at an okay time.

New kicks

I’m still going to be following everyone and commenting, but unless there’s an update I’ll probably not blog more than once a week. I still want to get my reviews out and am planning to go back to lessoning hopefully within a few weeks, but it’ll just take time for me to fully process everything and really get a solid outlook on where I want to go from here – be it buying a horse, leasing, or continuing to lesson for a while. Buying is certainly not in the cards yet, but leasing or lessoning are certainly options that I’ll fully decide in the future. Mostly though, I’m just focused on getting Amber as comfortable as we can get her, and hopefully manage this now that we know what it is.

Heat stress or exhaustion or stroke is no joke. As a sufferer of heat stroke myself, I completely understand people’s intolerance of the heat. Especially now that monsoon season came early for Las Vegas (it usually hits around late August/early September), the heat index hasn’t lessened one bit, but the humidity certainly has been on the rise. Usually when it’s 110 outside, the humidity is around 10-12%. Now, it’s 110 outside with 20% humidity and a time of day that usually brings the winds now has practically no breeze. It won’t even get below 100* until about 9 or 10 at night. Mornings are the best time to ride as is usual for most places.

This heat has really been kicking my butt the longer this heat/humidity thing goes on. I know it’s especially unbearable for all of you guys with the temperatures up and the humidity being MUCH greater than 20%. But for me, I can’t ride in the mornings. Most of my work days start at 6 am, so my only option if I want to ride is in the afternoon – when it’s basically hell lol. While it is a question of whether we should even ride when it’s that hot, for me NOT riding isn’t an option. Even though my episode of heat stroke has really affected my heat tolerance now, I know that if I ever plan to show or even manage to just hack around in Vegas, my horse and I HAVE to be able to ride in these extreme temperatures.

So what can we do to beat the intolerable heat this summer seems to have plagued everywhere? I have seen a lot of helpful tips on keeping our equine partners safe and helping them tolerate the heat. But what about YOU – the rider? In my opinion, the rider is absolutely just as important than the horse. Why? Because if I’m not taking care of myself, how can I efficiently and effectively take care of my horse? If I am tired or too hot or dead on my feet I may miss something that I otherwise wouldn’t have had I been feeling better. This may or may not help those of you, but I’d like to share the things I do to help Amber feel as good as she can and how I take care of myself through the hot months.

For the horse:

These tips won’t be anything new than many other articles on helping your horse tolerate the heat, but these are the things I do for Amber (and Whisper too!). First, I always have a full bucket of cool water in the arena. Our bucket in the arena IS in direct sunlight, but we are lucky enough to have our water source come from a well, and the water is nice and cool from underground if we have to dump hot water and refill it. On days when Whisper is working hard, whenever we have a break in “work” I’ll take her over to the water bucket to drink. Even if she doesn’t, it’s still offered and available. Even though Amber and I are just walking, I did this for her last summer when we were in full work, and the girls have gotten very used to drinking water if they’re thirsty. At one point Amber almost dragged be to the bucket after a morning walk!

Because I don’t want to cut Amber’s mane, I’ll braid it to help her stay cool as well.

Second, sometimes I will sponge Amber off before a ride – especially if it’s nice and breezy since that will help her stay cooler. Otherwise I always hose her off afterwards and immediately have a fan on her. The water that runs to our barn is much hotter than the water that goes to the arena – we accidentally miscalculated how deep to dig the trench for the water pipes, so it’s shallower and the water is consequently much hotter. I’ll throw the hose on and let it run for as long as it’ll take me to untack, then hose Amber down. Even if the water is still hotter than I’d like, the fans help to cool off the water on her skin almost immediately (I also always put my hand against her to make sure it feels cool).

Third, both horses are usually fed their grain around noon-ish, and on those hotter than hot days I’ll throw in some electrolytes. They both love the cherry flavored crystal/powder, but some horses won’t eat it and the paste electrolytes are very easy to use as well. There are even ones you can put in their water to encourage them to drink. I personally don’t have a preference of which one works better or whatnot, but I do use the powder since it’s cheaper in the long run and my horse will eat it that way. Whisper does pretty well on the electrolytes that go in the water as well as the powder. As well as electrolytes, if the horses are working very hard I do supplement with magnesium. Amber is a HUGE sweater, and sometimes they can even sweat out magnesium if they sweat hard enough. Magnesium aids in muscle relaxation, and when the horses were in difficult work I noticed the magnesium helped them feel better. This summer, Amber has been in relatively no work, and Whisper light work, so we haven’t been using the magnesium hardly at all.

Fourth – they always have fans on. Our last barn had misters and I’d love to have some misters here AND fans but I don’t know if that’s feasible for us at the moment. Amber loved her misters, and she loves her fans. Always standing in front of at least one of them. Whisper is a funny horse and has 2 16 gallon water buckets – during the heat of the day she drinks the inside bucket and at night she drinks from the outside bucket in her run. Amber only has 1 bucket, but we fill that about 2x a day – that girl certainly drinks! Other than that the girls have been here for a while and are pretty accustomed to the oven-hell that is summer in the desert (altho thankfully it’s not AZ where it’s 123 and your tires blow just from driving over 40 on the road).

So now – on to the rider!

Unfortunately I am……way more high maintenance than Amber haha. But in order for me to stay cool and not have a heat stress headache and regular “blah” feeling, there’s a lot I have to do.

First my clothing. Cooling breeches and shirts are my go-to for summer. I will actually overheat even in a simple T-shirt so I’ve been slowly accruing more and more sunshirts haha. My 3 fav brands are Kerrits, Kastel and Ariat (although my new Noble Outfitters shirt is working its way to the top) – those shirts absolutely keep me the coolest. I wear cooling tech breeches – Ovation Aqua X are my usual go-tos with the Horze Grand Prix breeches coming in a close second. The fabric on those is very similar to the Aqua X and I love them. I even have tech undergarments – Champion c9 sport wicking undies and the Champion c9 sports bras. With my short sleeve tech shirts I wear the Kerrits sleeves and Roeckl chester summer gloves – the mesh on the back of the hand keeps them cool while still having that great Roeckl grip. I also wear the Ovation schooling helmet, which is light blue in color to help reflect the sun and has a LOT of vents to help keep my head cool.

One of the most difficult things about summer in the desert is that your sweat evaporates almost immediately. A lot of the cooling clothing uses your own sweat so that a breeze catches it and cools your skin. Because of this, I have to “make my own sweat” if you will. I will actually hose myself down – my arms, chest, upper back, neck and head. My head does sweat, but by adding the extra water and making it extra damp, it ensures that the breeze going through the vents of my helmet helps keep my brain cooler. I probably look like a wet rat but hey – I’m a lot cooler haha.

While the clothing helps, it’s what I put into my body that does the most. Dizziness is one of the first signs for me that my body is feeling the heat, so I try to keep an eye out on that. Gatorade-water or smart/electrolyte water works the best for me. I usually buy the mid-size G2s and grab a large water jug and pour it in with some ice. I’ll put one or two in there depending on the size. Once the Gatorade fills the jug half-way, I fill the rest with water. With the Gatorade this way, I am not suddenly throwing a high volume of electrolytes into my body and throwing it off. It replenishes my body slowly, and I am also getting water at the same time. It lessens the too-sweet taste as well but is still tasty enough for me to want to drink it to help myself drink. I usually do this even though I also really like the Smart/electrolyte water. The Gatorade is a bit cheaper and I can make “twice as much” when I’m mixing it.

It’s just too hot here to do much more than stand lol

Next is blood sugar. I get very dizzy, extremely lethargic and very cotton-mouthed when my blood sugar starts to dip down too much. This also makes me even more susceptible to heat stress, so I’m always bringing food with me. When I worked at a barn during the summer as a teenager in high school, I was pretty ignorant about the heat in terms of stress/exhaustion/stroke. However, I was out there usually from 5 in the morning to around noon-ish, and learned that packing myself food helped me a LOT. So I’d pack myself a giant jug of water, some type of fruit that was juicy but also had natural sugars (watermelon is my fav for that), an energy/protein shake and a Gatorade. The protein shake provided energy and calories, but wasn’t a heavy food in my stomach like a sandwich or even a salad. Not a lot of that has changed now haha. Watermelon is great because it’s very watery, not too sweet, but can help raise your blood sugar when you’re feeling faint. I don’t need the energy or protein shakes anymore since I am not outside for 7-ish hours – usually around 2-3 hours at the barn now. I’ve changed the shakes to a small gel pack that I’d throw in a cooler when we boarded elsewhere, and that I keep in the freezer now that we have the horses at the house. I will periodically grab the pack and place it on my head as I’m finishing up at the barn. Since my hair is still wet from water and sweat, the gel pack immediately cools it and REALLY cools off my brain to prevent the headaches and heat stress.

I’ve come to recognize the signs my body tries to tell me about how well I’m dealing with the heat. My head is a big factor for me – even just a little bit of overheating or not doing all of these steps sometimes and I get a horrible headache. Dizziness or being slightly faint clues me in that I’m not doing enough, and that if I don’t do something soon, I’ll have to go through cold showers and ice packs to get my body temperature down ASAP. Most of the time though I’ll just feel a bit out of breath because the heat is sapping my energy, but I’m usually doing what I need to so I don’t feel dizzy or faint.

All of this allows me to cope with the heat the best way I can, and to also feel as good as I can so I can take care of my horse. It’s a bit tough to keep track of it all, but I’ve gotten into a rhythm with it that it really doesn’t take me too long to prepare any of these things. Plus, if it helps me avoid the ER to get more fluids than I’m all for it haha!

Hyperkewl Cooling Vest

I’m looking into grabbing one of these from RW too. It’ll probably dry out very quickly since the evaporation is so high here, but it might be just what I need to keep my core temperature even cooler! I’m usually pretty good for the majority of rides – it’s closer to when I’m done and finishing up that I need extra help in keeping my body temperature down. We’ll see how it goes!

What about you guys? How do you guys keep yourself cool in the dead of summer? What do you do to combat the heat stress for both you and your horse?

Happy Friday everyone! I’ve been pretty silent this week, but busy + not much to say = no posts haha. Amber and I continue to chug away at our walking and stretching and she’s looking promising again so I hope our vet appointment can coincide with her looking good instead of bad again haha. I’ve been hand walking her a lot due to the fact that I can get her to walk just that little bit faster with a lot less pressure or push than if I were riding. Plus, it gets me out and walking too and it’s a good way for me to see how she’s stepping. I’ve been having her walk over the uneven footing more, and power up and down a few more inclines every few days or so. I think it’s helping, but we’ll see.

The other day though I took her to an area near a house with the miniest ditch possible, just to step over it as something “different” to do and it may as well have been the Mariana Trench for Amber haha! It was seriously maybe 6 inches wide at most and 6 inches deep. The funny thing is she actually started out walking over it. Aaaaaand miscalculated where she put her foot so it slipped a bit. Well then the only other way was to LEAP SO DRAMATICALLY over the little thing. I probably shouldn’t have laughed, but I was about dying because she was also trying to leap on 3 legs. So we walked back and forth until she paid attention to where her feet were and walked over the thing. By the end we were walking over the smallest part possible which was still about 6 inches wide but 2 inches deep. I was just shaking my head laughing at her. The video above was taken the next day, after I’d determined that we’d walk over it again – calmly this time. She did but not without some snorts lol. I know she also desperately wants to run and play, and probably has quite a bit of energy which is why she was leaping the previous day. I can’t wait to see her happily run and play and buck once she’s really healing.

Just as a HUGE note before anyone gets too far in this – this is a video on preparing to show your horse for Reining.

With that out of the way, it’s still just a super cool, fantastic video about what a trainer does to get his horse ready for the show pen. This video was a clinic put on at a show in Arizona (I believe) with reining trainer Andrea Fappani. There are a few concepts that I’ve taken and used when I was still working with reining horses, and it really is fascinating (to me at least lol) to get into the head of a trainer and hear what he expects and how he corrects the behavior he doesn’t want. Personally, I don’t think it matters whether you ride jumpers or trail ride – the information is just really cool to see some of the facets of training for reining. Re-watching it again really makes me miss reining. It IS an exciting sport!

Be prepared – the video is an hour and a half long. Not sure if anyone is wanting to tune in to the video that long, but the riding/teaching really starts more around 5:30 to 6 minutes. Even 4 years after initially watching it, I STILL go back and watch it lol. So if you’re interested, please have fun watching! Plus, that Arabian stallion is TO DIE FOR. SO PRETTY. Also, I’m totally running out of content to post haha!

So I’ve officially ridden in the new dressage saddle for a few weeks now, and I have to say – I never thought I’d see the day I’d not only have a dressage saddle on Amber, but that I’d also ever even OWN a dressage saddle. Then again, I never thought I’d really be into eventing so I suppose the never-thought-I’d-see-the-day point is moot? haha

#fancy

But just a little fun backstory: it has been no secret for those people that have been around us for more than a few years that my mom and I dislike dressage. At one point it was a very intense dislike that you could really equate to hate. We swore we would never ever ever ever…..EVER ride dressage (ha ha, oops. sorry, mom). Interestingly enough, the dislike began with the popularity of Rolkur, and we hadn’t known what it was at the time and just agreed we disliked that way of going.

But we look cute doing it lol

It has been amusing though on this journey of jumping into eventing because my poor mom is trying to be supportive but every time we talk about dressage her nose wrinkles a bit. (And then she gets really worried about me going on cross country lol) Except when I was showing her a few clips of good dressage stuff. She likes it then. But she sort of sighs every time dressage is brought up. It’s really been funny because she wants to be supportive – she really does – she is just not a fan of it. Which I totally understand and is perfectly okay, and still makes me chuckle. So that makes it even more amusing to me that she actually advised me to get this saddle since it was a killer price and everything I was looking for for Amber.

Majestic Poneh

Can you believe that?! I couldn’t at first haha.

Also, I’ve come to find I actually like dressage.

I know. BLASPHEMY haha. When it comes to training horses though, I’m very cerebral, and I like to look at all moving parts and figure out what works best for which horse and why. So dressage training correctly makes a whole lot of sense to me. It’s helped me formulate a better idea of the concepts I’ve been working on with Whisper and transferring that knowledge in a way that makes sense to my mom.

But that’s something that I love doing and why I’ve loved learning so many different horse riding disciplines. After riding reiners there are some training concepts that help exponentially as I’ve been moving to dressage. Western pleasure concepts have helped create awesome, sharp slow downs on reiners. Learning the bit of dressage I have on Amber has helped me better communicate the lope to Whisper. You never know what concept from what discipline will aid you and your horse in the learning process, so I love learning all the things. As fascinating as dressage is for me, I couldn’t do it as the only discipline I rode, which is why I think eventing will be for me. You’re constantly improving at 3 completely separate disciplines, and that is even better to me because you get to learn all the things of three different things all at the same time lol.

Much adorable

So, back on topic of the dressage saddle I never thought I’d have. I was wanting a brown saddle, but I am not even upset. I thought I would be, but I’m sure it’s because I really like everything about this saddle so far. I maaaayyyyybbbee could use a half size bigger since it’s only a 17″ (but supposed to also cover to 17.5″) but I think the true 18″ would be too big. I love the way my western saddle hugs me in the seat, and I wanted to find a dressage saddle with that exact feel since I can sit Amber well in my western saddle. I also feel so much better in this saddle. When Amber was giving me little trots here and there on our way back to the barn during our walks for a bit, it was ridiculous how easy it helped me just sit there and be in the perfect spot. The trot that was SO HARD to sit in the jump saddle was so much easier in this saddle. It really lets my leg hang down, and I’d find that no matter how hard I tried to sit up and let my legs drop, my jump saddle would push me back a little and let my thighs come up. Which, well, it’s supposed to because it’s an eventing saddle. It’s perfect for that, but I feel like I can actually sit WITH Amber in this, like I could go back to riding with the Master Dressage videos I followed and be able to do all of this. I have noticed that I have a tendency to tip forward though, and I know that’s from compensating for my jump saddle and then just my natural tendency from riding hunters as a kid. So I’ve been working hard on sitting straight and making that a habit as Amber and I walk. The thigh blocks aren’t too big either which I’ve worried about that since it’s always been hard for me to sit like you need to in a dressage saddle (working on my hip flexors has helped immensely tho).

Very cuteness

Once I sit correctly, the saddle feels like this wonderful glove that just holds me there, and I really like the way I sit in it. The best thing? It’s already broken in. It feels wonderful and is starting to feel like home to me. The good thing is that it fits Amber pretty damn perfectly. I found it interesting that the day I was trying on the Lund breastplate she ground her teeth when I put the jump saddle on. Dressage saddle got no such reaction. Pretty sure she likes it. The only sad thing is that I’ve been keeping my black stirrup leathers I bought originally for my jump saddle – holding out JUST in case the dressage saddle I bought was black. Sure enough it is, it’s just that….well….I underestimated that dressage wants a REALLY LONG leg haha. I have those leathers on holes 3 and 2 1/2 and here I was thinking I had short legs and the 53″ would work lol. Turns out I have very normal legs when it comes to nylon lined stirrups – I’m used to the unlined ones so they’ve always really stretched out. Which means I’ll HAVE to get new stirrup leathers sometime in the future and Lund has some great ones so….twist my arm for that, right? Haha!

It’s been difficult to keep a healthy mentality through Amber’s surgery and recovery. As positive as I am in a lot of my posts, it’s been very tough not to get down by the whole thing, especially since the vet and I agreed that she wasn’t where we were hoping. I worry a lot about her and how well she’ll recover.

The actual cutest tho ❤

I’ve been super lucky with the people around me, supporting me in hoping for the best possible outcome, but also being realistic with me that it may come down to where she can’t do much anymore. At this point though, I don’t know what else to do to help her. I guess slogging through for a month doing stretches and continuing to walk until her next check up is what we have to do, but…..it’s been difficult to be positive. And I know I don’t have to be on here, and that we all understand that negativity that seeps into your gut like acid and you start second guessing everything.

Whisp and my mom joined us on a 4th of July walk.

But I dislike being negative in my posts. I feel this blog is one of my only avenues where I don’t feel I have to focus on negative things because I don’t really want to. As much as I am usually a positive person, it’s also because I can be very cynical and negative. I have a huge tendency to be way too hard on myself and focus on what went wrong instead of what went right and giving myself a break for being human. I don’t want to be that person who always says it’s sunshine and rainbows when it’s not, because it’s never always sunshine and rainbows. Most of the time, it’s not Amber or Whisper that made the ride bad but me. Not necessarily what I could/couldn’t do or did/didn’t do through the ride but my mentality. My own speed bumps that I have to get over. Sometimes, it’s absolutely not me and I can recognize that. So if it’s my fault, I won’t say much about it because my brain is already trying to spiral it down. But I also feel such joy whenever I’m around horses that I also can’t not be happy for just riding. I know if Amber and I can kick this thing and be able to do a bit of eventing, we’re going to have speed bumps. Those certainly won’t be sugarcoated, but I’m still going to try my hardest to recognize and focus on the positives because we’re all human – we make mistakes and we learn and progress through those mistakes. I want to try to acknowledge those and be determined to fix them, but at the same time I want to move on from them and focus on what was good.

These past 7 weeks after surgery have been trying on me mentally, wondering and not knowing and taking it day by day. I am sad and disappointed and most days at a loss, but I’m also grateful to be able to ride her, grateful that nothing that could’ve gone wrong happened to her. It’s a weird place to be in mentally but day by day, hour by hour right? The blogger community has been great in its support for me and Amber, and I love you guys for that. It’s been wonderful to be able to live vicariously through everyone, even if I do feel a pang of envy every now and then because I want to be out there with you guys sharing the experiences. I am truly happy for everyone, and your posts help keep me going and connected, and so many of you have come so far in even just the short time I’ve been following everyone that I love it. I love so much that the eventer community is focused on building people up and being supportive. It’s one of the biggest reasons I was drawn to eventing besides the promise of galloping (okay Amber and I would be cantering VERY FAST lol) cross country.

I don’t care how often she does this – it’s still sooooo amusing to me lol

I don’t know how college me did this with Amber’s initial knee surgery. I knew I was a mess and I did what I could every day, but as far as the emotional struggle of watching Amber recover I just don’t remember that as much. But I have a feeling it’s worse this time not only because it’s a stifle, but also because at that point, she’d only been officially mine for 3 months and I’d only worked with her just short of a year. She’s now been mine for 6 years, and we’ve been through training struggles, tears and frustration, saddle issues and bit issues and sooooo much stubbornness from the both of us learning together and me dragging the poor thing wherever I went and lots of personal growth that she forced me through. I certainly love this lazy pocket rocket a lot more now than I did then. She is my heart and soul.

Yup, love this little goober, even if selfies aren’t her thing lol

So I try to be positive on the blog. And I suppose it’s not a “sunshine and rainbows” positive, but really much more of a tenaciously positive drive. Amber did it once, and completely blew away the vets. So we can do it again. And it was so helpful to get encouragement not only from all of you bloggers (also big thanks to you Olivia for your comment about Eugene and his stifle!) but also from a good friend of mine who works in my tack shop. She’s so knowledgeable about horses, and was so caring and understanding even though I chatted with her past the time the store was supposed to be closing. Her horse somehow got a leg over the divider in a trailer and damaged his stifle very badly so she had such a long haul rehabbing him, but they were able to get back to their jumper competitions. It was really just the long back and forth chat I really needed to get myself to buck up and get my tenacity back. Care that Amber is hurting – yes. Even when she wrinkles her nose at me and gives me a spectacular glare and teeth grind. Because what hurts me the most is she never tells me no. She just lets me know it hurts, but this mare pretty much does anything I ask her. It’d be easier if she lashed out. But she doesn’t. So I stuff her face with treats. She gets stretched 4 times a day, and that will soon increase as each stretch will earn a treat instead of each part of the stretch. She REALLY looks forward to that now thank goodness. I can feel the leg getting better too, so that helps my hopeful tenacity to keep going, even if Amber gimps and gimps and I throw my hands up in frustration. Sometimes tho, I honestly think she exaggerates or does it on purpose to get my sympathy. It’s her face that gives her away. I read it pretty well now. HORSE YOU CANNOT LIE TO ME. Okay so she totally still outsmarts me – like she started offering a bit of trot and I thought “wow! she’s feeling better!” and goodness no she just wanted to get back to the freaking barn. womp womp lol

She HATES her nose being wiped haha!

I know once I get over this hump it’ll be fine and I’ll probably look back and think “what was I worried about?” but it is certainly not any easier. It’s just going to be a long process. There are a few things I have in mind that I’ll try for the next week and see how it goes. I know I’ve said this a lot recently, but I just want to reiterate it and say thanks. Thanks everyone for listening. Thank you everyone for understanding. Thank you for supporting me from afar. I really love our blogger community.

It feels like I got a heap of stuff around the same time. Which is pretty true and absolutely awesome. My tack ho heart is happy. It’s like Christmas in the middle of July…….or end of June, but close enough lol. Most of it is coincidence that it all arrived at the same time, and one was an actual buy recently. Tack ho win, right?! So, shall we get on with it? Because things!

As you guys know, I received my Cambox Isi3 last week. So far, it’s been a lot of fun to mess around with. New gadgets are always fun for me to play with and figure out new things, but after working on the helmet cam for about 30 or so minutes (this included interruptions at work since I took it to work with me lol) it was…..really simple. I was done figuring it out. It was really quite easy. Then of course, it just took a while to REMEMBER what every button activated and how long I had to hold the button down for to activate those different things. Still, pretty simple. (The video is sped up so hopefully it’s not too boring with us just walking lol)

I’m loving being able to test things out on my phone and download the videos straight to my phone. It’s not really a needed feature for me personally, so perhaps the 2 would’ve been fine for me. What I really love is the 720p at 60 fps. Higher than the 2 and better video quality. Which I prefer. So there we go. I DEFINITELY have to get a bigger SD card tho if I want more/longer videos. I got three 3 minute videos, and that took up about all of the space on the 16gb SD card it came with. But, since I’m not doing anything really NEEDING video footage at the moment, it can wait.

Screenshot from my Cambox!

The only thing that is a little disappointing about it for now is that my Ovation helmet’s brim is too small to fit the whole Velcro sticky thing on it. It hangs off a little bit, but not in any danger of the camera coming off. It still works, but since my brim also sort of points down, the camera doesn’t quite get any horizon for right now. Which is all fixable. I’ve been going back and forth between the new EQ3 MIPS helmet and the IRH navy helmet I tried a while ago that fit my head perfectly. But omg no more things for right now. That’ll either be a Black Friday purchase or a helmet awareness purchase. Now I at least also know to compare the brims to make sure my Cambox will fit haha.

Second, if you follow my Instagram, you’ll know that I received my Lund Saddlery pledge items.

Look at how beautiful it is. LOOK AT IT.

I had only pledged reins for the Kickstarter in December 2017, but due to orders being late they threw in a freebie which was absolutely amazing of them to do (one of the reasons they’re one of my fav companies now – their customer service is top notch!). One of the options was a 5pt breastplate, and I chose that one since I’ve been wanting to try that out and see not only how it would fit Amber, but also how it would work with all of our stuff – especially now since her jump saddle is a little big for her and needs help staying forward. I am absolutely in love with it so far. I am super stoked about this deal haha. Also just realized I don’t have a close-up of the reins, but I will do a review of the tack for sure once I’ve had it/used it for a longer period of time.

So adorable ❤ And yet, a little tight around Amber’s neck haha!

But the tack pieces made it to me on Monday! I was very excited to see how it fit and how it looked on the horses. I think I had way too much fun trying that 5 point on Amber. I even put it on Whisper and she was not pleased with me haha. But just with all of Lund’s other products, it’s beautifully made and the leather is top-notch Sedgewick. Plus, it looks good on both girls. If I can pad up my jump saddle enough the breastplate will be perfect to help it stay forward but also just to have it for funsies as Amber and I start riding on our outside walks. Ohhh maybe I can try it on Liam whenever I next have a lesson….

I mean really – you just can’t contain the cuteness! Also, we’re FINALLY in our XC colors of navy and light blue ❤

And third, there was a bigger reason I cleaned up the tack room other than it needed it: I did a thing (yes another one)(and tack ho’ed hard)(and this is why I can’t buy another helmet).

I spy with my little eye…

Yup, that’s what you think it is. It’s a dressage saddle. I was not going to buy a saddle for a while – like months a while. I had no plans as of yet to make the purchase. I’ve been going back and forth with what I want for Amber, even considering other brands and getting a full custom saddle because I worry a lot about how comfortable she is even though those are out of my budget. But I kept coming back to Prestige. I know the size and shape of their trees that fit Amber so I wouldn’t have so much guesswork as I would with another brand. Plus, Prestige trees are adjustable, and I need that as Amber recovers and starts developing more muscle. So I kept an “update me when things are posted with this tag” on Facebook so I could see what people were selling and get a good idea of price ranges and the saddles that were out there. And this one came up. This saddle was a killer deal, too. I’ve realized that most killer deals I find are when I’m not looking, and sure enough, this one popped up.

I mean, it fits like a glove….

So I hemmed and I hawed even though the deal was spectacular. I really wasn’t planning on buying a dressage saddle yet. For a long time, I was still thinking I’d grab new because the price for Prestige was pretty reasonable and I’d get all the specs Amber and I needed and wanted. This saddle was the absolute opposite – an older model, used but definitely well-loved. I liked everything about it. It really looked perfect. I contacted my friend who knows a lot about the saddles as she owns Prestige jump and dressage saddles too, and asked her what she thought. She couldn’t find anything wrong with it either.

It actually fits REALLY well. I’m normally not this lucky.

It’s going to sound super weird, but I dunno I just felt like this saddle called to me. The lady was really nice and I could really tell she loved the saddle and was disappointed to be selling it. She took absolutely immaculate care of it. (I contacted her after putting it on Amber and sitting in it and telling her I also loved it. She seemed very relieved) Also, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that maybe this would be a good purchase. Amber is showing A LOT of improvement despite being a bit ouchie only the past few days. Her jump saddle doesn’t fit her anymore, and I haven’t wanted to get it adjusted smaller yet – I’m holding out on her being sound and fitter before starting jumping and it might fit again after that time. I’m okay with riding in my western saddle, but I still want to do English. I’ve been really missing it. And when Amber does start progressing further, I want to start with dressage. I want to start with that strength training. Even though I’m dedicated to rehabbing Amber slowly and methodically, she’s been healing consistently well, and I have had to start going outside the box to help her continue to improve.

Saddle + new Ravenclaw stirrup covers = win.

Also, she knows the difference between her western and English tack, that smart girl. I want her to know that English is forward, and I want to help her stay forward to continue using that hind leg. So, I pulled the trigger. It is black, and I was hoping for brown, but I’m not upset by it. My PS of Sweden bridle is such a dark brown that it really all looks the same from farther away (although that Lund Bridle is AWFULLY tempting. Maybe Christmas present to me? lol). I’ll hopefully have a fitter out soon to have it looked at and make sure it fits her as well as I think it does. I mean, I shoved my hand down the channel and it seemed to flow along her back in every spot – no half pad even needed.

So fanceh

So far, I’ve only had a few rides in it, and it didn’t move on her back at ALL and the girth wasn’t even as tight as it could be. I’m mildly freaking out about adjusting things for this unexpected expense, but I’m also excited too. I mean who wouldn’t be – it’s a new saddle right? haha. But I think it’ll be good for the both of us and thankfully, my jump pads work well for now. Also, this may be a dressage saddle, but holy crap I haven’t realized how deep of a heartgirth this mare has. I don’t think she’ll ever be below a size 28″ in girths no matter how much weight she loses lol.

Lookin fantastic – and by the way, that is her 30″ girth. The 28″ won’t fit with the dressage saddle, but will with the monoflap that has a huge half pad under it. #logic right?

What do you guys think? How do you like it on Amber? Does she look like a proper dressage horse now? Probably not LOL. How about a proper event horse? Or maybe jumper since all I have are the open front boots? lol

Since I got off work early yesterday, it completely worked out since the vet showed up around 1 pm. Unfortunately, it’s not the verdict we were hoping for. Not the end of the world, but certainly not where she could be. As sad as I was that she still seemed to retain her soreness from the previous late afternoon, I thought it was good because Dr W could see her on a bad day. Personally, my mom and I think she tweaked something getting up from a nap or maybe something startled her (it is 4th of July and people do set off fireworks before that but she’s usually fine with them so….? Basically we have no idea LOL)

It’s the 4th of July. Why not have fun with some braiding? Although I have to say that’s the best damn neck braid I’ve ever done LOL

But it seems that there was more soft tissue damage than we originally thought. Which is not the end of the world by any means, but we were all hoping she’d look better at almost 8 weeks post surgery. It was heartening to know that other horses looked as bad as she did at this time, but progressed very well by 6-9 months. So that’s our new recovery time.

Thankfully, he also likes that I’ve been riding her outside, going up and down small inclines and increasing her time to 25 minutes. But, we’re going to keep it at 25 minutes and perhaps ease up just a tiny bit. In this she may be a slow healer, or just needs more time initially than others. We have options to inject her stifle to get some more fluid in there, consider IRAP some more, but as of right now we’re sticking to what we’ve been doing and another check up will be in a month to see where we are with that.

❤

Not the answers we were hoping for, but I’m not too disheartened. She’d been doing so well previously that we do think she strained something somehow, so I only walked her once yesterday. She was pretty sore after the vet visited and showed me some more stretches for her, so I decided to take it easy. She was certainly not herself and meandered VERY slowly outside with a few bobbles. But she still had her ears up and was happy to be out.

So, another month and we’ll see. Thank you so much everyone for all the good thoughts you’ve sent our way! We appreciate them!

It’s no question – Amber walks so much better outside of the arena than she does inside. Mostly I think that has to do with the fact that in the arena she has to actually lift her leg higher than she wants to or thinks she can at this point in time. It’s just so much easier outside walking on the pavement – she’ll walk herself and she really just enjoys it out there. I really have to push her so much in the arena, and I’m honestly afraid that if I have to do that too much she’ll start grinding her teeth and feeling like a sack of potatoes and not wanting to walk forward again. I REALLY don’t like doing that. Occasionally I’ve had to push her forward, and most of the time she’ll go, but if she doesn’t think she can it’s like she’s stubbing her toe constantly until I REALLY make her go and then she picks it up for a few strides. When I praise her, she collapses back to a “I can’t do this” walk.

Yesterday evening’s ride was not good. Not in the sense that she was bad in any way, but her stifle was either hurting her a lot or just super stiff. She was extremely short and off in the little time we spent in the arena, and then even still just not really herself when we were out on the pavement. I am very disheartened that she suddenly seemed to go back yesterday. She was also really sore on it – not wanting to put a lot of weight on it. I’m hoping it was just a bad day type thing.

Silly girl ❤

So, short of stretching her leg myself and walking outside, I’m at a bit of a loss of how else to help her. Thankfully, Dr. W will be coming by this afternoon to give her her post-surgery eval. Hopefully we can come up with some other things to do and where we need to go.

But I’ve started riding her again. We’ve gone outside on the pavement all of those days, and I was a little worried we’d revert back to her worried attitude before. She was very uncomfortable the first day I rode her outside, really listening to Whisper calling, but when we made it to the end of one street I hopped off and had her stretch for treats. That seemed to be just what she needed to help her reset and understand that things were okay and treats were to be had away from Whisper. I found a hump to get back on but it was certainly awkward managing that.

Were we able to make it from this awkward distance?Yes we were lol

We proceeded to walk back to the property and she breathed deeply and walked nicely. I gave her many pats and I breathed a sigh of relief. The second time outside was definitely better, but she was still a bit unsure. We stopped a bit, let her breathe, and then continued. We still stuck to just the street and a little bit past it just like I did in the beginning so it becomes routine for her. The next time I rode was Sunday night after my trip, and this was by far our most challenging outside ride but also most rewarding. She was a little unsure but willing to go just a bit farther again on the end streets. When we turned down the scary corridor (goats, big oleanders) the wind picked up a lot. It was causing something in our neighbor’s yard to make noise, and Amber REALLY didn’t like that she couldn’t see what was making the noise. Plus, another neighbor was walking their dog (it’s blind, and mostly deaf) and I didn’t want Amber to get near the dog and the dog to start barking wondering what Amber was, not to mention Whisper was calling frantically and it just looked like it could turn into something much worse. So I turned Amber as quietly as I could and honestly it felt a bit dicey for a few seconds. I already dislike walking a horse with shoes on pavement because of slipping. Amber was ready to bolt, and even hunkered down for a second. Even though I was nervous and she was too, she was a superstar. She walked out, being very careful until we were out of the corridor and back on the main street. I praised her a lot, and she was quickly back to her old self. We went again to the end of the street, a little farther onto the connecting street, and then still had 5 minutes. So, I figured we’d try the scary street again.

Doxie ❤

She was still very uncertain, but willing. Yet a quick stop/chat with the owners of said neighbor house really helped her settle. The other neighbor and her dog were gone, and so Amber carefully made her way over to the goats. We stopped and sniffed them (she really seems to love them) then calmly turned around and walked back out without issue. I was super pleased with how she handled it – especially that there was no accident on the pavement and that she kept her head and that no treats were needed during the ride! She got LOTS of face loves though. I’m still going to take it slow, but it looks like we’re well on our way to doing just as well riding outside as we were hand-walking. She doesn’t seem to see these rides separated from Whisper as being very bad anymore, so we’re going to keep plugging away at them. I’m just really hoping that yesterday evening’s ride won’t be normal. The only good thing was that when I was stretching that leg after the ride, her lip was going in her usual “this feels so amazing” camel lip. So uh….?

Hopefully, the vet has good things to say about her recovery and we’re on our way to keep going. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

It is needed. We are all so tired and sore haha. But it was so worth it!

We went out on the Colorado River and had a great time with the jet skis, the river was perfectly cold for the crazy hot day; and while we were there we ate twice our weight in food and drank just as much lol. Overall, it was a fabulous weekend.

I was actually holding this drink for the picture taker, but hey more alcohol right?! lolBreakfast of champions. And yes, that is hard seltzer water, and yes it was only 8:30 am lolThese ducks were super cute!Such a gorgeous day!

But really, as fun as the trip was it still doesn’t compare to being home and seeing the world through this pair of ears ❤ . Even though I didn’t have much time for anything else other than what we were doing, I still missed her. Also, if you listen hard enough, you can hear how even her steps are sounding!

Amber has them. I love that about her. It makes training her much easier than a few other horses I’ve worked with. Plus, she wants to do things for you, so that makes it even better. But there’s no doubt this girl is smart. And unfortunately, TOO SMART at times.

MUST we actually walk that fast mom?!

Like being lame just because she doesn’t want to actually walk. And freaking us out in the process.

Happy pony – but not so happy to be taken away from her food LOL

Because she has been walking phenomenally this whole week with morning and evening walks being outside.

What is this ditch and new house? Can I sniff it?!

We stop to smell the roses (or goats in this instance).

OMG GOATS. They lost their splendor once she smelled them and touched noses LOL.

And half of the time I have to still make her walk because she’s also smart enough to try to put in only THIS MUCH EFFORT if more isn’t needed.

She’s overdue for her post-surgery check-up, but my poor vet was injured in something horse-related, so he’s been out for a little bit and can hopefully see her within the next week or so.

My latest quick project – making House-representing stirrup covers!

As unfortunate as surgery was the first time she was injured, it’s helped me a lot with this one. With the heat, the majority of her time is spent standing, which allows the leg to get very stiff. The past few days she’s been on 1 gram of bute a day so that she feels okay when walking (she was pinning her ears back and just generally looking really uncomfortable and has since been a lot more willing to walk once we did this).

Dachshunds are always good to have on hand when starting a project.

So Tuesday night I started raising her walk time. She now walks 25 minutes in the evening but keeps the 20 in the morning. Part of that is just that there’s only so early I can go out and walk around outside when I need to be at work at 6 am. Mostly though, when she started walking, I’d up one time, leave that for 4 days to a week, then up the next one. With her walk improving and my vet not being able to assess her yet, I figured more walking certainly couldn’t hurt. The stifle improves with more walking anyway, so now I have her out in an area where she’ll actually walk and walk for a fair amount. So her evening walks will probably be 25 minutes until the weekend or so and then her morning walk time will increase as well. Hopefully by the weekend or the start of next week I can take her down to 1 gram of bute every other day.

She also is smart enough to know when 20 minutes is over. So yeah let’s start making that longer lol.

She got her feet done yesterday and did really well! I was relieved that she was actually able to put a fair amount of weight on that right hind! I was also super pleased that the new farrier was very understanding and careful with Amber due to her recent surgery. Plus, I think her feet look great. So far, I’m liking the new farrier!

I really just want to do this today lol.

Today I’ll be heading down to Laughlin for a mini-staycation with my sis, so my mom has kindly agreed to walk Amber for me for the 2 days I’m gone. It’s a break well-needed but I am disappointed to leave Amber for a bit since she’s been walking so well. I’m really enjoying the morning and evening walks – just peaceful time spent with the pony. I think she enjoys it too, though she really wonders why we couldn’t just be eating.

Usually, I am not into bribery. I dislike always giving horses cookies for things. I would like a horse to go into the trailer, stand still tied, do the work they were asked, or mostly anything else because I asked them to do so. I think those expectations make for a solid equine citizen. But lately, that has certainly been changing. Since moving the horses to the barn at the house, I’ve been using treats for a lot of things – stretches, Whisper getting nervous and the treats helping her, giving them to Amber in her grain because she was a good girl or lately – giving them to Amber when she is a good, calm girl.

Homemade guac and chips? Yes please!

Which, yes she is a good, calm girl 99% of the time. But the other day as we were walking outside, the horses (a neighbor close by has 3-4 horses) started calling and calling and people were unpacking their car and the oleander bushes were waving in the breeze and looked like a solid wall and Amber just COULD NOT. She was snorting, jigging, letting her butt off the ground but thankfully not kicking, and would not settle. All of this stuff individually usually doesn’t bother her. But together, on that night, it just wasn’t happening. So I walked her a few circles, and once we were past that street she was fine.

WHAT DIS? MUST STICK MY FACE IN IT

That ride a while back where we were doing okay and then Whisper called and it all went downhill has still been firmly in my mind. While Amber used to be marvelous on the trail, Whisper hasn’t ever called before either. It was one of my biggest reasons for starting her walks outside. I can have a controlled outing, make it a lot more routine and hopefully have these outings be fun again for Amber instead of her worrying where Whisper is and not focusing on me at all. I didn’t want another day like that, so I let go of the jigging and Amber being upset, and wracked my brain for something when I came up with treats. When Amber can’t see Whisper is also when she gets very upset, so that’s why for the first few days I kept her walking with Whisper in sight. Then she seemed to get bored fast, so we went down that new street and she was not happy. So I packed a baggy full of apple slices, and first thing we walked down that street until it met the next one. OF COURSE she was fine, but at the end, I still gave her a piece of apple. I made her stretch for it, and then at the scariest part of the street near our neighbor’s goats she got another treat to stretch for. When she tried to really push up the slight incline of the street, I gave her another treat.

OMG MAGIC. This, by the way, for timeline’s sake, was Saturday evening.

Proceeded to clean out the tack room Saturday. Next to the saddle used to be another rack with saddle pads on it but the pads kept attracting too many spiders for my liking. Time to spring clean! In the….dead of summer lol

So then my mom and I noticed that Amber continuously shortened her stride, and almost refused to go forward when I’d walk her in the morning around the arena or when we’d turn her out. She was pretty much limping, and just felt very apathetic. Then in the evening, she walked happily outside. I was on the verge of calling the vet before I thought to maybe walk her outside of the arena morning AND evening. So Sunday morning, I immediately took her out of her stall and straight to the street. She really labored at first like we were going to the arena, and I had to get after her a bit because really, horse can walk on her own 4 feet and I know she’s not dead lame right now because she walks fine when on the pavement.

Cleaning complete with a border of Raid around it to ward off the spiders. Now I don’t have so much stuff out here collecting dust.

And what do you know? She walked just fine in the morning. I took her to the arena for the last few minutes and we walked over poles and she was great at that. She then walked better in turnout as we give her hay in piles strewn about the arena to make her walk to each of them since we don’t have grass. Then she walked well in the evening too and I tried some more treat magic. She was WAY more focused on me – she could smell her apple treats and kept her nose near my pockets and consistently touched and breathed on my hand in her way of saying TREATS NOW MA. A quick poke to the nose and she walked politely next to me after that. (Not that she wasn’t initially polite but I really do not want a nippy horse so it’s preventive).

She is fascinated by that TV and piece of paper on the side of the road. That cabinet next to it has a mirror in it and I was about dying laughing when she saw herself in it and was like WHAT BE THIS SORCERY. She then looked at me like I was an idiot for laughing at her LOL

Monday morning before work, I got her out again with a few treats in a baggy. I wasn’t planning on walking farther, but we managed to visit another area that had been scary and was only a little bit further than before, and she got a treat for remaining calm and keeping it together – which there really was nothing to keep together. She just walked, was super chill, and looked very happy to be out and have her brain stimulated. I almost gave her another cookie in the “scary” part of the street with the trees and goats because horses started calling, but her only response was her head lifted a fraction and she breathed deeper. So I gave her many pets but we kept going. By that time our 20 minutes was almost up, so we walked back to the barn. She walked better over the bit of rocks, and really tried to push up the small incline going up to her stall. So she got a cookie for trying hard up the hill, and then the last cookie I’d brought once she was in her stall. Last night, we even managed to go all the way around in one of our previous walk routes and she was foot perfect.

I even went into the tack room numerous times and she just stood here. Which is usually where she stands tied so she thought she was tied. Love this horse haha!

So. Cookies. Magic. Especially for a horse that is food-motivated the cookies were perfect. I just didn’t want her to have a bad experience like that last time. Plus, if cookies can help give us really positive experiences when scratches and pets aren’t enough – that standing still and stretching in a “scary spot” or “away from Whisper” is wanted behavior instead of us potentially having a fight we shouldn’t have – then I am all for it. Slowly, I’m hoping to wean her back off of the treats, but I’m not in any hurry. If I have to continue them when we finally manage to ride outside, then that’s okay. I know she won’t always need treats because the walk yesterday was great and she only got 1 treat on the actual walk portion. It does help that we’re making things routine. When I go off routine and introduce something new (which it really isn’t, she’s seen it all before but time away makes it new, right? lol) she tends to get very unsure, especially if Whisper is calling, so being armed with treats should really help.

OMG the goats! (she was more worried mere moments before and I just couldn’t catch it in time.

I also find it funny because she’s realizing when she tries hard up inclines or over poles (I’ll start the over poles rewards soon) she gets a cookie. Because hey, if mare won’t do it for herself and I’m not about to force her to do it so she hates it, and treats make it a lot better then I’m going to be buying treats and stuffing her face with them to give her more incentive to work harder haha.

What about you guys? Do you use treats to help you start something or do you prefer not to treat at all?

Amber and Whisper are pretty broke. Whisper is a bit la-la-la on trail and saunters and moseys along, and Amber is more like “OMG this is SOOOOO exciting” and kind of powerwalks and looks at everything. She’s such a curious soul, but it’s one of the things I love most about her because it makes her brave. (Plus if she looks too scared, I’ll back her away from it and then she’s like “I do not back away from things; now I MUST see what this is!”) She also knows that if something confuses her, I will let her look for as long she wants to figure it out but sanity must be retained.

This happened the other day. The neighbors had a little road racer (no freaking idea if that’s what it was – some cart-racing-box-looking-thingy that looks like the Mario Kart carts lol) at the same time that Amber spotted something different across the way.

Ooooo LEAVES lol

She’s fine with carts, but I started to get cautious. Girl hasn’t done more than a walk in weeks, been on alfalfa (granted only a flake a day but still), and I’m on her with only a bareback pad strap and mane to hold should she decide to be silly. She was just staring at the doors and tires across the street, and I could just feel that happy reserve start to head to the top. This is another thing I love about Amber. She’s not spooky, has hardly ever spooked badly when I’m on, and when she does spook it’s the whole body jolt and all four legs plant type of spook. Also, if she isn’t startle-spooked you know when the spook is coming. You can feel it. She stares and blows and you know if something else comes up that just maybe we have a spook on our hands. Which is like, head shake, grunts and a teensy leap. Very tame lol.

Most of the time, if I’m bareback I just don’t want to slip off. This time I wasn’t worried about me coming off, and felt quite stable when the cart gunned up and Amber did a WEE and I was like please dear god no do NOT ruin your surgery! And it was over in 2 seconds. She had a hump, a sassy head shake, and I said whoa and then she kept walking at her saunter. I just chuckled after. She gave it the hairy eyeball for a few passes, so we stayed away from it and she didn’t even notice the doors or tires the next time I walked her. Wild and crazy this one lol.

What I wish I was doing.

I just love how broke these 2 horses are, but it’s been difficult to know what to do. I know she’s dead bored in the arena. There’s only so much you can do to stimulate a brain when you’re walking for 20 minutes trying to help a stifle. She’s always happy outside the arena, and really walks. She’s been definitely shortening that leg more the past few days, and I’ve been at a bit of a loss of what to do. It seems eerily similar to how she suddenly seemed to go downhill before she was good for access to her run a few days early. So we’ve started her on her mid-day turnout with hay piles scattered to help her walk so she doesn’t just stand in her stall all day. I also haven’t wanted to push her when we’re walking. I want rehab to be fun.

Also, it’d be better if SHE was the one making herself really walk, not me. So with that in mind, I put on her boots and her rope halter (she’s more respectful of that lol) and we proceeded to walk down the driveway. My plan was to just walk up and down our street in full view of Whisper and the barn the whole time. Since the last few times Amber has shown she greatly dislikes not being able to see Whisper, I figured this would help start the process of doing lovely trail rides again. Plus, the more she gets out the better she is outside. She got a little upset the first time we got to the end of the street and Whisper was calling for her (and running and bucking in the arena my goodness lol. Wish I had that on video lol). Once we made our second pass though she was much better about it (not that her protest was even on a bad scale in the first place. She’d just stop, be a little nervous and walk faster).

Can I just say how SHINY this horse is?!

And boy was she walking. She was definitely excited to be out, and certainly ready to GO. She wanted to buck once, but gave the teensiest hop. It was the other reason I wanted to start doing this in rehab – she knows she’s hurting, and she’s been very careful with herself this whole time. And that same intelligence worked to my advantage while walking. She got happy, jigged a few steps, but mostly it was a very forward walk. We’d pause to sniff at the tires, or pause quickly for something else. We only walked 15 minutes before our neighbors popped over for a chat, but we all figured that was for the best. She had a good outing, then outside the arena got LOTS of attention to help the experience stay positive. (which is her fav).

She was sorer after the chat, so I mixed up a bit of extra grain with some bute in it. As sore as she did look, she was moving her leg better than she has in a few days. I think just like before, she was getting increasingly stiff, and we just have to get it moving and working. And I am really encouraged because she was moving SO NICELY. She only had 1 misstep with that right hind leg, when currently in the arena it’d be about 5 or so times. So that’ll be the plan for the next while – all of our evening walks will be outside. I want to hand walk her most of those times, get her more comfortable and have it be “routine” to get out there and be away from Whisper. It’ll stimulate her brain, and hopefully soon I can grab her some easy boots and we can start walking all around instead of just the street. It’s a process, but we’re getting through it!

#1. Have an injured horse. This is most helpful since you can’t do anything with the horse anyway; if you are unlucky enough to have a healthy, sound and uninjured horse, then that is okay.

Cutie pie ❤

#2. After a long day at work, it’s okay to be lazy. Were you wearing a dress with your shorts underneath? Wonderful. Just put on a new top that can get horsey (or if you’re a guy just go put on some shorts). Throw on your non-riding sneakers sans socks – if you’re one of those people that needs socks don’t worry.

#3. Despite all of those Young Rider and Pony Club magazines and horror stories you’ve read, still go out to the barn in your flip flops or non-horsey sneakers. No trust me, this comes in handy later.

Amber’s new bareback pad!

#4. If your horse is injured and they’re in their 15-20 minute walking phase, this is perfect. Go walk them when it’s 106 outside and hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.

#5. Once in the arena and on the mounting block, take off your sans-socks shoes. If you were in flip flops, you’re one step ahead. Now, commence the 15-20 minute walking in the blazing sun. Within a few weeks, you’ll start getting those tanned, summer legs back! Now, you may not look like a weirdly-portioned alien when you put on a swim suit! Which, you hardly ever put on or go to the pool because let’s be honest, 106 is too hot to be outside for any length of time.

#6. Always wear your helmet. You may scrape up your legs and lose a few toes if you get thrown, but at least your head is safe!

#7. Proceed to have fun as you walk your horse and get a tan at the same time.

Amber has been doing well – or at least, I think she’s doing well haha. I’m not expecting miracles about how quickly she’s progressing, but as with all progress she swings up and down. I started her at 10 minutes hand walking on the 26th that first week just to ease her into it, then went up to 15 minutes for the next 2 weeks. After the first week she was alarming us that she wasn’t really getting better and would not put much weight on the leg, so we upped the walking to twice a day and she’s been doing much better with the 2x a day regimen. This past Saturday was her best walk day yet, and she felt very rhythmic and cadenced. I’m not expecting that leg to be completely normal and exactly like the left one for a while – these things take time and I am really just looking for her walk to improve and be smooth, cadenced and easy and rhythmic. Her right knee initially took about 3 months of stall rest and hand walking before she was relatively okay to start a little bit trotting before a check up at 4 months, so I’m fully prepared for this to take just as long (I’m also being really careful haha).

I don’t like to make her turn in a tight circle a lot, so I tell her whoa while I close the arena gate and this is what she does lol. The train was moving too and it was pretty windy. Such a good pony mare lol

All of the detail is mostly for me so that I can look back on this in case something like this ever comes up later, but she has her good days and bad days. They mostly seem every other day or every 2 days, so on those mornings where she’s been stiffer I’ve given her a gram of bute at lunch so she feels a bit better by the evening walk. The last thing I want is for her to start resenting her rehab and the walks, and I can tell it’s hard for her. She has been more vocal with me – she’ll start grinding her teeth a bit and looking back at me when she doesn’t like something – while it’s not a habit I really want her doing, I am happy she’s actually trying to communicate her dislike with me instead of being all:

She’s pretty sore on her back – I’ve been riding with pads and foam half pads to hopefully help her a bit, but there’s only so much I can do. Sometimes they may not want to walk because it hurts but it hurts because they haven’t been doing anything…..It’s a vicious circle. But even her favorite stiff-bristle brushes hurt after a curry on her sore muscles, so I’ve gone to my super soft goat hair brush and she hasn’t ground her teeth or looked back at me with her nose wrinkled like “HELLO MOTHER I AM TRYING TO TELL YOU SOMETHING.” So I am learning too but it’s hard because she does that same thing when Whisper is getting more attention and if my mom and I are tacking up at the same time, so is it me causing it or Whisper? Slowly but surely I am trying to learn and be aware of the VERY SMALL things she does to showcase her dislike (I mean, give me a break horse; I can’t read your mind).

So cute tho ❤

The good thing is, most of our sessions she actually is eager to get out. She wants to get out and walk, thankfully. She’s just meh when she’s not feeling well, which I absolutely don’t blame her for. We have had the poles out for Whisper’s rides, so occasionally I’ll walk her over a few, just to keep the walk from being exceptionally boring. She’s doing well – I think they’ve been helping her a bit, and she mostly hits them when she doesn’t need to bring that leg forward over the pole, but when she does she’s actually been quite brave in bringing it over. She doesn’t when it’s hurting a little more, but every time we go over I’m telling her how smart and brave she is and patting her. Her ears stay up as we meander along.

Saturday I thought we could up her to 20 minutes, and she walked really well with hardly any loss of rhythm. But the winds kicked up and she was pretty sedentary just standing there in her stall, and was pretty stiff Saturday evening for a 20 minute walk. Sunday morning she was still a bit stiffer than how she usually has been, so I walked her 20 minutes and took the walk time back down to 15 for the evening. That seemed to do the trick as she was a bit playful Monday morning from what I’m told – trotting a bit in her stall with her I’m-so-wild head shaking haha. Part of me is oh-dear-god-don’t-trot-yet and the other part of me is I’m-so-relieved-she’s-feeling-better lol. I think the surgery has absolutely helped her for the better, and while I miss riding her how I used to, I’ve been able to get into more complicated/finessed/finishing work with Whisper. She and my mom have been progressing really nicely and I’ve been finding a better balance between working Whisper and walking Amber. The only bad thing is that Amber has figured out that when the timer chimes its little tune on my phone that it’s stopping time and she halted on a dime the other night haha. Can’t say she isn’t smart lol.

Finally got the navy and light blue browband on her! I love it!

I certainly missed her while I was gone, but now that I’m back we’re still chipping away at recovery! It also helps when your mother is a saint and volunteers to walk your horse in the morning for you when you have to work at the crack of dawn lol. It’s super helpful that she loves Amber too (except when she’s mean to Whisper which is…ah…all the time haha) but it’s really great having someone on your side that cares about your horse as much as you do.

I finally got back from the conference yesterday morning! As nice as it was to get away and have fun in this crazy fancy hotel (that somehow still had crazy problems because they gave me and someone else rooms that were already taken so they upgraded me and then charged us randomly for things that we weren’t supposed to be charged for and checked one of us out early randomly….) I am very happy to be back home with Amber and Choco.

I’ve missed walking her, and Choco was very happy to see me – of course I was very happy to see her too! Amber was a little mad at me for not seeing her for so long haha! Such a silly pony. Now time for a good, animal filled weekend.

We’ve got a lot of wind in store for the next few days, and it’s not for the best since Amber won’t walk as much if at all so her stifle will be pretty stiff. But that’s what our 2x a day walk is for! Poor girl isn’t happy to be cooped up, but what can you do? I’ll miss her when I head off to Dallas on Monday, but I’ll be back early to play around with her.

I have a lot of it from the long weekend. Most people took Friday to Monday off, but I’m usually the sole worker on Fridays so I decided to take Tuesday off instead for a good 4 day weekend.

Injured pony was finally able to have her run on Saturday. First she did this:

Ahhhhh, such a good roll!

Then she did this:

SleeeeeeepYup, nap time again

And that was pretty much everything. She slept and slept and slept if it wasn’t too hot. All that bedding from her stalled time went outside, so she had a good 4-inch pad to lay on. She liked it I think lol.

OMG just let me sleep

Amber also started her walking Saturday. She’s good at times and ouchy at others – which is to be expected. She has remained a little stiff tho so yesterday I decided to twice a day of walking (as the vet recommended if she needed) and it ended up being just what we needed. After Saturday to Tuesday morning hand walking, she seemed ready (and let’s be honest bored lol) for me to just hop on bareback and walk around the arena for 15 minutes. I have missed being on my horse, even if at a walk. It very clearly showed me how my position has been falling to the wayside, but I digress haha. With me sitting atop, I let her pick her pace, and thankfully, she’s been careful with herself. She didn’t walk too fast or continuously too slow (as would happen hand walking) and seemed a lot happier. Still ouchy of course, but by the end of 15 minutes she was really starting to feel much better. Time and patience but we’re chugging away!

Thanks for walkies, ma! Snuggle time ❤

And it worked out because my DJD order arrived and I had time to put it on my Lund bridle and try it on Amber. It looks lovely, and while I haven’t put on the light blue/navy one, I know it’ll look good on Amber. One thing I was surprised (and really happy) about was that the snap fits the Lund bridle really well! It looks fantastic, and I am certainly in love.

SO LOVELY❤

Most days were chilling with Choco and Amber and resting, and spending time hanging out with my sister at her pool with her dogs. All in all, a good weekend before a short 3 day work week and then I’m off to Dallas for a work conference for a week. I’ve only been on one trip before, and this trip will help me with training and tools for work so that’ll be a good change of pace as well. I’ll miss my dog and pony, but that’s still a little bit away! Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone, and enjoy the excess media lol.

Amber gave us a good scare Wednesday night and all of yesterday. She was starting to look a little down on Wednesday, but I thought it was probably the nature of how after surgery progresses or whatnot. She’d gone off bute Monday morning, so perhaps she was really starting to feel the surgery now. And then she wasn’t wanting to put much weight on her right hind leg at all. Her leg remained cocked and as I continued to study her, her nostrils were a bit distended and she was drawn up in her belly. I quickly made up her grain with bute and stuck it right in her face. NOTHING. She even turned her head away.

That horse is like me – she never turns down food. Especially something as delicious as her grain. She didn’t feel hot or anything, but then she laid down to roll in her stall and lightbulb. When Whisper is really hot and sweaty and upset she rolls. So although Amber didn’t feel extra hot, I was sure she was. So I quickly got her in the crossties, and she didn’t move a muscle when I went to hose her down. Usually she protests her baths, and this time, she relaxed and stood still as I left her wet with both fans on her. She was immediately breathing easier, and interested in her grain again so phew. Bullet dodged.

She continued to be very ouchy on her right hind for the rest of the afternoon and her left leg was starting to swell more due to most of her weight being on that leg, so I texted my vet and asked if I could ask him a few questions since I was starting to get really a bit worried. When he called me (bless him lol) I asked if any of this was normal, and he was like “yeah, no it’s not.”

Of COURSE it’s not normal

He continued and said it could be an infection if there was a small bit of the suture that didn’t come out and was still in there but because there wasn’t any sign of drainage or puss (the skin has really been knitting nicely and the bumps have gone down even) we didn’t think that was it (THANK YOU because if it had been my fault with the sutures….). Other than that he wasn’t completely sure and asked that I take a video of her being hand walked in the morning and send it to him so he could see how she was walking. I gave her a lot of bedding so she could hopefully sleep easy, and then proceeded to hunt through RW and SP for anything to maybe help. I quickly nabbed some rehab pellets from SP that Amber had been on for her previous surgery (because hell it can’t hurt, right? lol). So that’s on it’s way soon.

This morning I hurried over early, and what do you know she looked much better, and walked much better. Really, this horse.

I sent it to the vet, and THANKFULLY he said she just looked a little stiff from being stalled. So she can start her time outside in her run a few days early, and she can start being hand walked early as well. So that’s really good news that she’s still healing quickly. I swear this horse is giving me gray hair and heart attacks lol.

I would’ve said chugging along but we’re not even doing anything so is it really chugging? lol Also, I’d like to thank everyone so much for sending us good thoughts and get wells! I really appreciate it!

Amber is doing well. I was able to take her sutures out pretty well and easily. Only one on her knee was a little tough and it bled a bit so I bandaged it up for 2 days just to be sure. It looks really good now and unless anything changes I’m leaving the bandage off but just with lots of silver spray since that seems to help keep flies at bay. Her stifle ones were pretty easy to get out – the inside one is still puckered – it doesn’t appear swollen or sensitive to the touch. I think it was just the way the sutures were that caused the skin to pucker a bit but that too has a lot of silver spray on it.

She got a good grooming and Peppy Spray! She was shiny lol

She scared us a little bit one morning around 4 am – we’re thinking she tried laying down on her right side and just had trouble getting up. Pretty similar to how I think she hurt her left leg in the first place but she didn’t seem any worse for the wear. Coincidentally, the next night/morning we could tell she was back to sleeping on her left side because of all the shavings on her. Girl really loves her soft bedding and I can’t blame her lol.

Her left hind is still just a little swollen around her fetlock mostly. It really doesn’t feel hot, and I think it’s also because she’s stalled and so the leg is stocking up. Since the swelling seemed a little bigger Tuesday night than the others, I bandaged it again with the combi wrap and a relatively tight polo to see if that helps. While the rope makeshift-stall guard has loosened with her being eager to scratch on something, she remains okay with being stalled. She hasn’t become destructive so I’m glad of that. But I know both she and I will be happier once she can access her run come Sunday, and I think once she has that area the swelling will go down again. She’ll have a bigger place to sleep, a softer place to lay down and snooze, and some space to wander a bit.

This was taken Saturday. You can see just a teensy bit of swelling (where you’d expect to see a windpuff) around that blob of fetlock corona ointment lol. It has since gotten a bit bigger so hopefully a wrap will help. You can also see just how many cuts she gave herself thanks to the corona.

Whisper has been doing well. We’ve had some good rides with lots of good progress. She just needs confidence in the fact that she can turn away from the rail on the right lead, and that it’s much easier when one is utilizing the butt lol. She really doesn’t WANT to use her butt but what is new right? We all work to get those hind legs engaged! Either way she has been really good, and we’ve been testing her fitness by having her canter a lot. Most of the work that we need to finesse now is at the canter, so now that she’s gotten fitter I can now actually ask her to do things longer and carefully go just that little extra. She always gets lots of breaks and pats, and she’s not sure this loping thing is really needed, but I’m super pleased with how her brain has been coming along through this. She’s getting a lot more confident in me again too that while I’ll push her out of her comfort zone a lot more than I have been, I’ll always be there to try to help her out and give her praise, and I’ll never ask for something I haven’t previously built upon. Little steps, and a lot more state of mind than physical, but I’m just so pleased that she’s not even getting anticipatory about things. She’s waiting for me to ask her for a gait or gait change, and I’m just glad she’s responding so well.

No pics of Whisper, so here’s the doxie. She LOVES yogurt lol

Other than really starting to get further with Whisper for our fall/winter show series, it’s been quiet (as usual) and pretty boring (as usual) as Amber heals and I’m busy with non-horsey things (as usual) so it’s been interesting juggling all of this. You’d think once your horse is down for the count for a while you would have more free time – not in my case lol. But dachshund snuggles are always the best, so here’s some pics of Choco to end this post lol.

Alright. Now that I’ve had a bit of a breather with Amber being home from surgery, it’s time to move forward. She’s doing just fine; I take her out of her stall to groom her and love on her, and unfortunately that’s all we can do for right now. She’s pretty bored but what can we do, right? lol I’m at least trying to give her plenty of attention. Plus, the Lick It that I put in her stall for her to start playing with has some score marks in it so I’m hugely crossing my fingers that now she’s actually starting to play with it because she’s bored. She’s not really a stall-toy or always-keep-my-brain-busy horse, but I also don’t want her to get destructive. So if this helps, we do it lol.

She likes to make sure she can see Whisper lol

As for moving forward, we obvi have to wait for everything to heal, but I have a few options. To recap on her knee, the bone chip wasn’t able to be removed because it was enclosed in the joint capsule, and Doc would’ve had to go through her old scar tissue as well as through the synovial fluid to reach it, and it would’ve caused a lot more damage than if he’d just left it. And from what he could see, where it is isn’t bothering her movement any, so he thought it best to leave it. I’m in agreement with him – her knee definitely isn’t the healthiest joint, but as of right now I’d prefer a horse that’s 80% sound versus 40% sound if he’d had to tear up all that soft tissue. So he backed out of the knee. Interestingly enough though, the swelling around her knee has actually gone down (that spot in the tendon just above her knee) and even the usual puffiness around her knee has gone down, too. So whatever he did I think her knee is feeling better as well which I’m of course pleased with.

Is this too much bubble wrap? I think not lol

Her stifle is more positive, but also a little more muddled. She had some bad cartilage in the joint and some rough points of bone, so he cleaned that up. Her cartilage was a little soft for a horse that had so much time off not doing a lot, but I’m wondering if that’s because she’s had the issue for 6 months (so inflammation could have been more damaging) instead of 2 since we weren’t able to schedule surgery until her abscess was completely healed. He feels that it’s got a pretty good chance of good recovery, but what exactly caused it…? We’re not really sure. There’s just some general degeneration of the joint, so while it’s positive, it’s also a bit of a toss-up. Still, not bad news lol.

But I do have a few options. I’ve heard some pretty good things about the laser therapy, and liked it when I’d had the other vet come by and do acupuncture as well as laser therapy for Amber. At that time the problem was chronic, so I don’t think it helped as much as it could have. But I can do laser treatments on her stifle and knee and see if that helps any more. I still want to inject her knee; she responded really well to that the first time we did so, so I think that’s another good step for helping her knee feel better. We could also do IRAP, which is what the Doc recommended.

All we did was walk 5 steps to the cross ties and she was happy lol

Which, I do want to try IRAP but it’s also….expensive. And it’s a recommended treatment every other week for 4-5 weeks so my eyes already feel overrun with dollar bill signs lol. The IRAP could also potentially really help her knee as well so I just have to figure out what I want to do and how it’ll all come out. But I have a few weeks to decide whether or not to pursue the 2 options. I want to see how she’s doing after a week or so of hand walking which will be in about 3 to 4 weeks. So it’ll take some time, but poor thing has been stuck with needles so much recently lol.

She’s been laying down and sleeping even though she has mats in her stall, so I’ve hurried to really bed down the stall nicely so she has a soft spot to be. As much as I worry that laying down might hurt her, I’m glad she’s comfortable enough to lay down and sleep! I’m sure that bit of sleep helps her heal even better. I took her left hind leg wrap off Tuesday, and thankfully the swelling had gone down a lot. It was still slightly puffy in places, and the spot on her hock I think she hit the worst was still a little swollen, but at least the lower leg looks better. She was super itchy on that leg, so after some good scratches and medicine, I bandaged it up again – this time with the combi wrap and a polo and not with too much pressure. I didn’t want the leg to balloon again, but I also didn’t think she needed it very tight anymore. Thankfully when I checked her Wednesday the hock swelling was down even more, and I felt comfortable putting that left hock boot on for sleeping. I still wrapped her hind leg (though lightly) with a polo since that leg is so cut up that I don’t want her to reopen those cuts or cut it more because of the mats.

Also, I finally got my plaque that Amber and I won at the 2017 year end awards banquet ❤

Since her sutures are relatively easy to get to (at least they look like it; let’s hope so lol), I’m going to try taking them out. I wasn’t able to get an appointment soon enough with the Doc to take them out until next week, and she’s a really fast healer. Unfortunately, because she heals really quickly, she also scars very easily. While having a few more scars won’t be bad, I know from past experience with her and sutures (her knee, the back of her elbow, and above her right eye) she starts getting annoyed at them and trying to scratch them or pick at them herself so I’m going to take them out either today or over the weekend.

As much as she’s being a funny girl and pushing her door open to get out of the stall, she seems content to rest. The surgery was stressful, and she’s definitely been calmer here than at the clinic. While she finally seems content to rest, I think she is starting to feel better. Not only has she been less destructive, but she’s just seemed a little happier as well. I’ve noticed that she’s still careful bringing forward that right hind leg after standing for a while, but I’ve been really trying to be observant of her facial expressions and I think that stifle is feeling better. It’s difficult to explain, but her expressions when she’s doing just the little bit of walking around her stall look happier. She’s even started to “reach” a little more! (as in she doesn’t short that leg walking over the bar out of her stall which granted she’s only done once lol small victories right?) I’ve added some U-Guard pellets to her grain as well, thinking why not because my mom had them, and I think that’s been making a big difference in her feeling better as well. Thanks everyone for crossing their crossables and keeping us in your thoughts! She’s been much happier I think, and I’m hopeful that we’ll come back well from this.

When you’re itchy but your mother is tired of you taking your fly mask off so she attaches it to the neck cover LOL

I finally got to put another ride on Whisper, and she was her usual stellar self lol. I was excited to use the Equilab for this ride since it was going to be crazy, but was a wee bit disappointed.

I also don’t know why it shows we went to the front of the house (we didn’t) and I’m not sure what that black/white thing is either…..

We actually probably cantered for at least 7 of those 11 minutes spent walking. Perhaps Whisper’s canter is just too slow? lol Either way, she was a good girl and really started to get the hang of what I was doing (which was a cloverleaf pattern around 4 poles lol).

But I’d like your guys’ input as well on this! I’d like to see what I can do to make her strict stall-rest time happy, so I’d love to know what you guys have done for your injured ponies. I’m also new to IRAP so if anyone has any experience I’d love to hear it! Have you had any experience with Laser therapy as well for things like this? How has your horse responded to it? Or have you gone the route of traditional injections? How has that worked for you? I’d love to know your thoughts!

To give you a bit of background first, Lund Saddlery is a relatively new company. If I’m remembering correctly, they debuted on Facebook September 2016-ish. They make extremely affordable strap goods from quality Sedgwick leather – and you can’t beat the price! All of their pieces are within pretty much everyone’s budget, and I absolutely believe you’re getting really good quality for those prices. Two things about this company that so far I have very much appreciated and loved are 1) whenever you contact Lund on Facebook, you’re talking directly to the owner of the company and 2) Lund has monthly draws on facebook where you can win whichever tack piece is on the docket for that month. That means FREE tack! You can’t beat free tack, and I generally enter every month. Also, many other bloggers have tried out this brand’s strap goods, and Lund has all of those reviews on their page for you to check out, too.

It looks so nice!

On to the bridle! I was itching to get my hands on this leather considering I’d read so many bloggers’ posts about how lovely the products were. There was going to be a kickstarter in December, and originally I had planned to get my bridle and reins combo through the kickstarter; however, Lund was selling the eventer series snaffle bridle and lace grip reins they had used on their horse model for a discounted price on facebook. Me being generally impatient, I decided to snap it up. And then couldn’t wait until this came in the mail lol.

I’m not really an Austrailian nut fan – at least not on Amber. She’s already orange, and the orange-ish padding with the reddish leather I was just not the biggest fan of how it looked on her. I actually liked the natural look of it on Whisper better. She’s a liver chestnut, so the contrast of color looked good on her. But, after reading Karen’s post about darkening the bridle, I knew it would be no issue to get it a lovely Havana that I think looks very snazzy on Amber.

Getting it fitted….She’s very excited lolAfter the first coat of oil

I’ll talk more on darkening the leather later and go to the quality of the leather. I’ve never really had really good Sedgwick leather, but now that I have, I am definitely hooked. Out of the box the bridle was a little stiff, but as most Sedgwick lovers know and as I came to find out, it’s usually a bit stiff at first and takes a while to break in – however the leather lasts FOREVER. And I can absolutely see why. While the leather was a bit stiff, it wasn’t a cheapo-stiff-leather feeling if that makes any sense. It merely felt new, and you could seriously see and feel the quality straight out of the box. The padding on the monocrown, browband and noseband is Italian leather, and absolutely luxurious feeling. I of course hurried out the next day after work to try it on Amber and make sure it fit. It was a full size, which Amber definitely needed – browbands can tend to be tight on her since she ranges from full to oversize for that forehead and those ears of hers. While the circumference of her nose requires a full-size noseband, she’s a cob in the length of her head. Even still, the Lund bridle fit her very well.

See? Look at those mule ears lolol

I immediately took it inside and applied a coat of Neatsfoot oil. Neatsfoot will be your friend in darkening the leather. Karen suggests Belvoir as well, which unfortunately I didn’t have. I tried the Passier lederbalsam on it but don’t like it as much as plain Neatsfoot. The Sedgwick absorbed the Neatsfoot like no other leather strap goods I own, and it was brand new! The Italian leather padding darkened immediately with the Neatsfoot. I applied one coat, and it looked very dark at first. Once it all soaked in, it lightened and required more coats of oil.

For the next few weeks, I did just as Karen suggested – I’d ride and coat in oil, ride and oil, ride and oil, etc but not clean it with glycerin soap. It darkened very nicely, soaked up the oil like crazy, and after a few times I stopped with the Passier lederbalsam since it seemed to make the leather a little tacky and would attract the Vegas dust like flies. The Neatsfoot left it feeling soft and smooth. It stopped darkening after the first month of plain Neatsfoot, but I also haven’t cleaned it in a while. Haha oops. On the plus side, it absolutely looks no worse for the wear. I’ve left it in the un-sealed tack room and it has gotten wind, dust (like literally there was a 1/2 inch of dust because the winds were so bad), humidity from the rain and still looks new. I know most east coast weather is absolutely worse than mine, but Vegas is also extremely dry, and that can very quickly damage leather. So far, it’s taken the weather like a champ. As I’ve used it over the past 6 months, it’s only gotten softer, but still remains very hardy.

The reins are the exact same quality as the bridle. The front portion of the reins, just like the noseband and browband, are plain raised. Yet after a lot of Neatsfoot, it’s just as soft as the bridle. The laced part of the reins is still a little stiff and a little hard on my fingers, but that does help provide extra grip -especially if you’re wearing gloves (alas I was not lol). Even though the stitching is the same color as the bridle and reins, it’s all flawlessly done and really speaks to the quality of these strap goods. Because I was even more impressed with the quality than I had been before, I funded their tack trunk kickstarter and decided I’d try the rubber reins. I have heard so many stories of rubber reins melting, and I never liked how sticky they are, but they’re on my list of things to try.

Even though I only have 2 items of theirs, I’m already wanting more. Part of me wants to get a black dressage saddle now just to have an excuse to buy their dressage bridle haha. But I plan to also try their calfskin leathers, the rubber reins, their 4 point breastplate….things that I probably don’t need but the leather is just so nice! Rob, the owner of the company, is very honest and forward with all of his information, and it’s such a relief to be able to actually talk to the owner of the company and get good answers in a timely manner. I’ll definitely be buying more of their products in the future.

While I got my bridle discounted, the Eventer Snaffle Bridle is $175 USD and the reins are $95 USD; however, those prices INCLUDE shipping. It’s a very affordable bridle, and definitely much more worth the purchase price than other bridles I’ve had. Five stars from me!